Thank heavens I have finished it and I can move on to something a bit more enjoyable (hopefully). Be prepared for this review, because really, this book was an ordeal.
Now I haven’t seen much of the TV programme this book accompanies – I think I have seen the bit with the South Africans – and having read the book, I’m not going to follow it up by buying the DVD or watching re-runs on one of the documentary channels. The reasons for my reluctance I’ll go into later in this piece.
In researching a bit more about Mr Reeve, I was overwhelmed by disappointment at how this book turned out. That is because Mr Reeve had written a thoroughly excellent book before on Ramzi Yousef, the first World Trade Center bomber. That he went from a brilliant piece of investigative journalism, superbly told to this 380 pages of weary, tedious wailing is a tragedy. This book is the ruptured aorta of bleeding heart tomes.
Reeve is travelling (roughly) along the Tropic of Capricorn. He is doing it by land only (a couple of short boat trips notwithstanding) and has also broken the trip into three parts. Part 1 is Africa (Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, Mozambique and Madagascar); Part 2 is Australia; and Part 3 is South America (Chile, Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil). His timetable would take him to the Brazilian coast on the day of their summer solstice for a bit of “event tourism” we’d all like to do. On the way, though, he sets out to cheer us up no end.
His researchers and fixers must seriously despise life. Reeve seems to go out of his way to find the biggest collection of miseries and pessimists this side of Block 31 at the New Leslie Grantham. Let me sum up some of the experiences:
Namibia – poverty of the black Namibians, apartheid sort of still in place, hidden genocides
Botswana – diamond mining exploiting the countryside, minority tribe treated like dirt, HIV crisis, colonial guilt.
South Africa – Easy pickings. The Boers, Zimbabwean refugees, game reserves altering the course of nature. He couldn’t wait to get out. No surprise there.
Mozambique – Poverty, rich man tourism out of place, displaced people for tourist reasons;
Madagascar – Deforestation, poverty, destruction of ecosystem, extinction of species;
Australia – Vulnerability of whales to industry, asbestosis, aboriginal woes (really goes to town on this), difficulty of farming in the outback, climate change, bleached coral, global warming, indifference of Australians to it, needs of China and India for big business expansion. He didn’t seem to like Australia;
Chile – Moaned about altitude sickness on altiplano, more poverty, how do people live in such difficult conditions, copper mining, big business wanting to drain lakes;
Argentina – More indigenous people woes, deforestation, climate change, big business, corruption;
Paraguay – Soy production leading to deforestation, a visit to a torture camp, a visit to Ciudad del Este (which all travel guides tell you is horrendous), Hezbollah does fund schools you know (I wonder what that curriculum is like);
Brazil – More deforestation, visit to shanty town in Sao Paolo, more climate change, especially in relation to the huge dam built near the Iguacu Falls;
Get my drift. If there is a sob story, Reeve finds it. The whole of the book seemed to be a chance to wail and moan about the world we live in, bemoaning our environmental impact on the world. I know I can come across as a heartless so-and-so but really, did he have to pack the book with such relentless proselytising throughout. We get your drift – you believe in climate change and the horrors of big business and powerful corporations – all the while flying around the world, driving throughout countries while making a documentary series for the BBC. Does self-awareness ever come through in this? Reeve has already made a series on the Equator and now will make one on the Tropic of Cancer (oh my God, this takes him to Western Sahara, Bangladesh, Burma, Saudi Arabia and China – think of the possibilities there!). I suppose it is all right to enjoy a lavish western life style if you are out to inform and educate.
Reeve is a good writer, so the book isn’t hopeless. It just annoys me. Maybe that’s my fault as someone who is just a bit too cynical to believe agenda-driven politicians. Yet Reeve gets some convincing evidence from people who keep saying “things are going to get worse” – but it is the repetitious nature that tires. He keeps mentioning China as the root of all future problems as their thirst for resources grows, yet rises up against poverty in all its forms throughout. It is OK moaning about all this, but the only solution is to retrench and good luck with that. You can cry with the indigenous people all you want, but their desire to be left alone by government is pretty much echoed by those of us who don’t want to be constantly nannied as well. You can’t always get what you want. On the issue of the soy fields near the end of the book; well you reap what you sow – and no it isn’t the fault of US governments in hock to big business, it is the absurdity of life. After all, you say the only solution is to cut energy usage, but when you are jetting off around the world making films, why should people listen to the preaching?
Is this a case of not wanting to believe what I read? Possibly. I know all travelogues aren’t going to be Palin’s flitterings from expensive hotel to tame tourist locations, nor Bill Bryson’s folksiness, or Colin Thubron’s laboured ambles. Reeve has got his people to set up “stories” to be told to a world that needs to know, and it is unremitting. It lacks optimism. It lacks hope, and at the end, you seriously wonder what he wanted to achieve. 380 pages of “why on earth is this happening” is tiresome.
Of course there are some good bits – I liked the tale of the islands of Mozambique and the very convenient detour to Okavango Delta, but even then, there were downbeat observations. The wild honey hunting, the persistent waking up by cockerels, the encounters with wildlife – all excellent. It was good that near the end he had the uplifting stories of the Sao Paolo favelas, and that was optimistic. It took long enough.
There were a couple of bits that annoyed me in particular – even more than the global warming stuff – and on page 127 of the paperback, this writer laps into laziness that I know is riled by wife being the nationality it is, but is so bone-achingly tedious that I had to comment. The section goes - “…many American tourists arrive at Johannesburg airport expecting to see lions shooed away from the runway.”
I really hate this sort of pap. I tell you now, Mr Reeve, you may think it is a source of great shame to the US that they are insular and ill-informed (in your view), but you should get on my local bus, or read some of the web pages I do, and you’ll find that our education system isn’t exactly up to the mark that we can laugh at the Yanks. The fact is, I doubt most of the people on my bus home would know where Johannesburg is if you asked them to point it out on a map. At least those “ill-informed” US tourists got out to investigate. Those in glass houses should definitely not throw stones.
If you want a book to lecture and preach, albeit very politely, then go for it. Not for me. Someone going on an all expenses paid around the world trip and then bleating about climate change isn’t floating my boat. Sorry and all that.
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