Day 72

Blair, D.

[Alemzuriash’s] tragedy drove home what I found to be Africa’s most haunting quality: the contrast between the dignity, stoicism and goodness of its people and the venal, selfish brutality of those who lead them. … Wherever I travelled, I found good people struggling to lead decent lives in the face of their governments’ egregious cruelty, vindictiveness and paranoia.

‘Brave citizens endure brutal leaders’ Sunday Dispatches in the Sunday Independent. December 31 2006, p. 13.