Except, one is tempted to put in, when it's cold. And so on. Some of this rhetorical overkill seemingly emanates from Kapuscinski's distress about Africa's fate. Much of it feels related, however, to the eminence he has achieved, particularly in Europe. This sort of soliloquy leaves one wondering less about the people being pondered than about the lofty speaker.
Petulant rants erupt.
At an open-air market in Nigeria, Kapuscinski sees ''a veritable mine of the cheap and the shoddy. A mountain of rubbish, gimcrack and kitsch. He even offers a bitter plaint about how those who write about Europe, with all its fine art and architecture, ''have a comfortable life.'' The magnificent sympathy that Kapuscinski has brought to reporting on the third world simply deserts him in certain pieces here. In fairness, Kapuscinski's specialty has never been economic or political analysis. Scene, character, inspired subjects, intrepid reporting and a certain stoic moral authority have been his great strengths.