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Bad Lands

Tony Wheeler, founder of Lonely Planet, has featured before on this blog. Two articles of his are listed in my Albania in the Media post and offer a positive view of the country:
What country has Roman and Greek ruins, a stretch of Mediterranean coast yet to be discovered by international tourism, a beautiful old mountain town with UNESCO World Heritage status, good food, wine and beer, a buzzing entertainment district in the capital city?

It seems that his reflections on Albania and a group of other countries are about to appear in book form, but if I were an Albanian I'm not sure I would be entirely happy at the prospect.

The book, due for publication in April 2007, is not mentioned on the Lonely Planet website but it is available for pre-order on amazon.com where I found the details and the cover image.

It's called Bad Lands: A Tourist on the Axis of Evil. Yet as well as North Korea, Iran and Iraq - the original axis of evil according to George Bush - he also includes Afghanistan, Burma, Cuba, Libya, Saudi Arabia and, yes, Albania!

Recognising that this is stretching the concept of the axis of evil a bit, he stretches his subtitle to try to cover this very diverse group. He is a tourist on the axis of evil 'with additional excursions to places that are slightly misguided, mildly malevolent, seriously off course, extraordinarily reclusive and much misunderstood.'

Where does Albania fit in? Presumably 'much misunderstood'. Yet while Wheeler's writing on Albania has portrayed the country more sympathetically than is often the case, those who only glance at the title of this book will understand Albania even less.

Comments

The PC said…
I'm confused.
Ll.T. said…
We very evill, verry, verry evill :D :D :D

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