FAO Quotables

"But being right, even morally right, isn't everything. It is also important to be competent, to be consistent, and to be knowledgeable. It's important for your soldiers and diplomats to speak the language of the people you want to influence. It's important to understand the ethnic and tribal divisions of the place you hope to assist."
-Anne Applebaum

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Following ADM Stavridis' advice on writing. The Zanzibar Chest chronicles...

I am doing my best to follow ADM Stavridis’ advice on writing and productivity, I am going to provide periodic updates on my thoughts and/or good quotes from books as I read them.  Hopefully from these short updates I will better be able to write the book reviews that I’d like to get published.  The last three books that I read (The Ultimate Weapon is No Weapon by Shannon Beebe and Mary Kaldor, The Shadow of the Sun by Kapuscinski and The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell) I will have to almost reread in their entirety in order to give them a coherent review. 
So without further ado:
Currently, I am reading  The Zanzibar Chest: A Story of Life, Love and Death in Foreign Lands by Aidan Hartley.  These are the memoirs of his time/life in Africa.  So far it’s an incredible book that reads more like an adventure novel.  A few months ago I was at a reception for POLADs (Political Advisors) at the State Department and I was speaking with one gentlemen headed back to the continent.  We started discussing books, and he said that The Zanzibar Chest was his favorite book on Africa.  Already I can see why.
It’s always great to research the author and following are a few links on him. 

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