If there are saints in the world, it is the people who clear minefields for a living. This book is a real education into the lives of mine victims and those heroes who clear minefields for others. The stories it tells are very human stories. Very moving, and gives me an understanding of what life is like in areas of serious conflict in the world (with a particular focus on Angola). My only complaint about this book is that the writing could be better (don't get me wrong, it's not bad, it just seems a little choppy). Everyone should read this book. It's a real education into what lives are like for people in Angola.

Dragons' Teeth? Landmines? One and the same. Statistics? People? One and the same. Philip Winslow has taken the seemingly unending plethora of statistics regarding landmine incidents, One every twenty minutes of every day of every year somewhere in the world, and put a human face on the problem. For example: An Angolan woman who has lost a leg to a landmine, and whose brother, as a soldier, placed landmines in the ground in the same country. An American student in Israel who loses a leg while camping. British deminers now working to clear the land. A Canadian Peacekeeper killed in Croatia while removing landmines. All statistics, but also all very real people. And Winslow has the ability to take you to the site of their encounters with these deadly weapons and experience it for yourself. All that is missing is the noise, the smell, the confusion, the anguish - and the pain. A chilling reminder of the monumental problem facing the world community; to rid the land of these "Silent Soldiers," left buried in the ground long after the conflict is over and the human soldiers either have been buried, or have departed for home. And a reminder that Nationality, place of birth, sex, age or affluence makes no difference to the "Silent Soldier" about to be trod upon and detonated. "Must reading" for those North Americans who believe they are not affected, nor will they be affected, by the mines buried in the ground in some far off place. I can unequivocally state that landmines can and do affect "North Americans". My son happens to be the Canadian Peacekeeper mentioned above, and one might therefore say I am biased in regards to this publication. However, having read many reports and publications about landmines in the three years since his death, I have found none that has the ability to pique my interest and compels me to read on, as has "Sowing the Dragon's Teeth." Bravo, Philip Winslow!

I bought this book because there are so few books written about Angola in English. It is both a delight and a huge disappointment. Granted, Hare concentrates on one topic only - his very valuable experience of 'peace' making in Angola. To this extent, the book is a very useful 'fact-checker' for anyone working in or on Angolan issues today. He provides a chronology of events of the negotiations for Lusaka that is written clearly and concisely. It is probably a good enough guide for a student of African affairs or international relations. However, for anyone who has lived or worked in Angola, it comes close to pure entertainment at times. His book reveals how narrow-minded Western diplomats and politicians can be when they are dealing with a region outside their own cultural boundary. He unwittingly shows how little he understands about the people of Angola, let alone their leaders such as Jonas Savimbi, UNITA's leader. Quoting phrases from his diary, Hare's analyses of why Savimbi behaved in a certain way or other serve to reveal how Hare failed to look at the Angolan crisis from any view other than his own. I have heard this book described as 'laughably bad' and as a 'perfect example of how the Americans get it wrong in Africa'. These are indeed perceptive comments. I would advise anyone interested in Angola today to read this, preferably with a few Angolans at hand to point out the absurd cultural assumptions that Hare shamelessly commits.

Mediation is harder work than the mainstream media is able (or at least willing) to let on. For that reason, a book like this is an invaluable resource for anyone thinking of a career in diplomacy. Historically speaking, Hare's book is outdated, since peace has come, gone, and come again in Angola since it was published in 1998. Nonetheless, it's a valuable study of a crucial period in the country's long road to recovery from civil war, from the perspective of a participant who had an almost-inside view of both camps in the dispute. I'm persuaded that the Angolan reviewers above have a point, that Hare is too much of an outsider to have a complete appreciation of what their country went through. What he does provide completely, though, is an insider's look at the realities of American diplomacy, how it works, and why it doesn't always work quickly. It's a great case study of a difficult case, valuable to students of both African and American politics.

Angola, still in the midst of a decades-long battle when Hare's work began, is a good example of the ultimate challenge in that field. Hare's style is a bit dry, but his accounts of the two steps up, one step back peace process is refreshingly straightforward and devoid of political spin, to a degree that has been almost unthinkable in America for quite some time now. Although Hare shows no sign of any political agenda beyond that dictated by his job, this study gives the lie to any argument that the Clinton administration's interest in Africa began and ended with Somalia or that it was inept on the international stage. The leaders of both sides of the conflict are presented in a surprisingly reasonable light given the circumstances, and Hare at least tries to account for the convoluted political lay of the land as the war appeared to draw to a conclusion. Some previous familiarity with recent Angolan history is certainly helpful in understanding the story, but all the basics are here. It ends on an appropriately uncertain note, but events since the end of Hare's account have demonstrated that the efforts weren't wasted.

why does it take so long to get such a good book

Tony Hodges has finally seen the light regarding Angola. A known MPLA sympathiser, his book shows that there is no right or wrong in Angola. Both the MPLA and UNITA are fighting a 30 year civil war for power. Angola's natural resources provide the monetary resources to continue the war.

Hodges does an excellent job in describing Angola's vast natural resources, the allocation of those resources, and the fraud and corruption associated with the resources. His charts and tables are of particular value to an Angolan scholar.

He also details how UNITA thrives by continuing to hold some diamond mining areas and how they export the stones for funds to oil their military machine.

However, Hodges best contribution is his explanation of how the MPLA government spends billions on defense while the Angolan people starve. Much of the money spent lines the pockets of MPLA generals, and politicians.

My question would be if the MPLA regime is so corrupt would a UNITA victory be more disastrous?

This well-written book provides the reader with an indepth analysis of the underlying dynamics of two of the bloodiest and prolonged civil wars in Africa.

Minter's focus in on examining the impact of both internal and external factors on these conflict and what role, if any, they played in helping to escalated conflict in Angola and Mozambique. The book's multi-tiered approach is well-suited to this type of investigation and Minter makes a strong case that external actors played the major role in prolonging and intensifying both civil wars. In doing so, Minter lays the blame for much of the bloodshed and suffering on South Africa, the United States, and the Soviet Union as the death struggle of apartheid and the end of the Cold War came to play an integral part in these internal conflicts.

Although I disagree with some of the book's specific conclusions--such as RENAMO's lack of popular support in Mozambique--Minter makes a strong case overall and seeks to answer lingering questions over the role and degree of external support to insurgents in Angola and Mozambique. This book is a must for the student of southern African affairs who is seeking to better understand one of the most defining times in the region's history.

Casting the giant sable antelope as a modern day unicorn, John Frederick Walker's Certain Curvature of Horn is at once a tale of mystery, wildlife biology, and potboiling politics. Anyone with an interest in Africa's megafauna will enjoy this carefully researched saga of the sable's precarious existence through Angola's long civil war. The first part of the book is not for the squeamish as one antelope after another is felled by trophy hunters and museum collectors. Walker's obvious reverence for the iconic beasts makes each shot and each death feel like a personal loss. But it is the mano a mano of Angola's warring leaders - Eduardo dos Santos and Jonas Savimbi - in the book's second half that causes the most discomfiture as the conservation world agonizes over the sables' fate on battlefields that have bled for over 30 years. The question of the sable's survival among so much human bloodshed is the book's big unanswered question. Walker tries mightily to get a flesh and blood glimpse of the endangered animal, making numerous trips to Angola and finally, a furtive dash into the war zone itself. Not to give away too much, his disappointment is tempered by what seems like the end to Angola's civil war and the beginnings of new animal sanctuaries where decimated wildlife, like the giant sable, can begin anew. Walker manages to make you care for a magnificent animal that like the country it symbolizes, is a tough survivor.

The United States has for too long negelected the interest of the people of Africa and focused too narrowly on the political, strategic(business)interest to the detriment of the continent.

This work spells out in detail how a failed U.S. policy played a key role in the destruction and morass of Angola. The "Cold War" is over, maybe now we can get it right!

Written in a fashion which recalls Clavell's Shogun, this is a tale of an English sailor's adventure in deepest Africa during the early years of European colonization. Lost on the shores of Portuguese Africa, our hero finds himself first impressed into the service of the European masters of this land -- later establishing himself in the local colonial community. But the real highlight of this book occurs when he finds himself trapped in the back country where he becomes a servant to a savage cannibal king whom the Europeans and other native peoples live in fear of. Sliding into the very savagery of the people who adopt him, he becomes one of them and lives, for a time, the life of barbarism & adventure their rough existence decrees -- leading their armies into grim and bloody battles and partaking in their bloody and gruesome feasts. In the end this man finds his European self again and manages to make his escape from his adopted kinsmen, returning to England with a mulatto wife to live in retirement and write his memoirs. It's not clear if this story was based on or elaborated from real events but it reads like it could have been. I read it years ago and so am a little cold on some of the details but thought, then as well as now, that it was a worthy contribution to the kind of literature which Shogun exemplified -- though it's not quite as compelling. --- Stuart W. Mirsk

The positive reviews I have read here are mystifying. Bergner is a talented writer, for sure, but I really felt as if he mailed in this book more than anything. It sure didn't seem like he spent a year at Angola prison or even in the vicinity. Seemed more to me as if he flew down there every once in awhile to see what's up. The book starts off GREAT, the first third, and then proceeds to fall apart with the not-so-interesting details of his fight with warden Cain to retain his access. Once he wins that fight it's as if the author has lost his steam. The charcters, even warden Cain, don't seem to come to life and their story, the one he tells, just isn't so compelling. I just came away feeling that the author was worn out. Too bad, too. I had high hopes for this one. Want to read a book that DOES make this kind of access work? Try Pete Early's The Hot House, about his two or three years inside of Leavenworth.

This is a fascinating book. I thought it would focus on the rodeo that Angola holds each October, but that's just a starting point. The rodeo gets him there, but like all good writers, Bergner realizes that a larger, deeper story exists. He sets out to spend a year at the prison. But, as often happens to good writers, the story that he expects to find is not the one that he finds. The book goes into a completely different direction that he, or readers, ever expected. Once the twists take place, I felt pulled into the book. There are times when I wanted more information, such as the end when he relates what happened to the people he discussed. And there are times when I skimmed, feeling like there were more details than necessary. But, overall, the book is a winner.

God of the Rodeo is an exceptional book. Its novelistic rendering of the gripping stories of men who will spend the rest of their lives in Louisiana's notorious Angola prison results in an unsentimental -- but extremely moving -- story of life behind bars. Without being pedantic or political, the book forces us to confront the fact that while we have a right as a society to incarcerate these men for the brutal crimes they have committed, we have a moral obligation not to ignore them. The book also offers fascinating portraits of ministers who are among the few willing to devote time and attention to caring about these men. Whatever your view of our criminal justice system, God of the Rodeo is an important book to read. Moreover, its excellent writing makes this book a pleasure to read as well.

I did not find the recipes hard to follow at all - there are many alternative ingredients that do not take away the spirit of the dishes in question, and they are provided in the book.
Historically, I found it more than usually accurate as far as ethnic cookbooks go, and this is more of a multi-ethnic effort united mostly by history and to a lesser degree by religion and language.
Having no prejudices whatsoever before approaching it, I honestly believe this book deserves kudos for introducing the multi-ethnic cuisine of the lusophone world to us - and as a somewhat lost vegeterian in my city of adoption I'm particularly thankful to the many vegeterian dishes from Goa, Malacca, Macao, mainland Portugal and just a bit everywhere else I was able to find, prepare and serve in the family home with more lauding than my previous vegan attempts.
So thanks for the book, and whatever species you are - carnivourous, omnivourous, seafoodivourous or vegeterian, *do* try this book!

Having bought a copy of this book in spite of one of the reviews, I feel one should challege the notion that 'very silly recipes are the norm'. It might be fair to say that the section on Portuguese colonial history is a little thin but the explanations accompanying the recipes of how the dishes have moved from one location to another and have been altered in the process, together with details of variations, go some way to compensating for this. Then again, if I were looking for information on Portuguese history, I would not begin with a cookery book. The suggestion that recipe ingredients 'do not ring true' is rather baffling. I can find similar recipes in, for instance, other Portuguese, Brazilian and Goan cookery books. Likewise, the ingredients in African recipes are often common to nearby countries which do not have the same Portuguese influence. Also, while bibliographies are not a foolproof guide to the quality of books, it would be unusual to see a bibliography as good as this in a bad book.
All things considered, this book has a fascinating range of recipes - many relatively easy to prepare - from a wide variety of countries and its ingenuity is the simple linkage of Portuguese influence. It's not perfect but is highly unusual and I am thoroughly pleased to add it to my collection of several hundred other cookery books. My advice is: when you read a review from someone who is dismissive without providing substantive reasons for being so and fails to distinguish between a bad book and one they simply don't like, ignore it. Or, to put in another way, if you're interested in something different in the cookery line, why not buy this book?

I just found a great new cookbook. In the 16th century the Portuguese developed one of history's greatest empires. The Portuguese empire, in turn, created a diverse cuisine that was influenced by the local crops and recipes of many different nations, with a strong emphasis on seafood. Cuisines of Portuguese Encounters by Cherie Hamilton is filled with fantastic, easy-to-follow recipes that capture these amazing and unusual combinations of flavors. One evening I made fish curry from Goa (p 174), a stew of whitefish and grated coconut seasoned with cumin, coriander, ginger, onions, and green chiles. As a salad I made a delicious creamy mmixture of avocado and dates (p 59), pureed and served in the avocado shells, from the windward island of Sao Vincente. This venture was such a success with my family that I next made a fish ragout from Southern Angola (p 172), that is a marvelous blend of fish and okra. The side dish for this meal was rice with split peas cooked in coconut milk (p 144), a creamy preparation from Zambesia in central Mozambique. Urged on by the praises of my family, this past weekend I made Caranguejo em Cosquinha (stuffed crab), a dish tht has traveled from Goa to Brazil (p 206). It consists of a saute of crabmeat, green and white onions, curry, and black olives in a pastry shell. Along with this, we had a fantastic Arroz de Tomate (tomato rice), a popular way to prepare rice in Portugal (p 146), which is rice prepared with tomatoes, garlic, and onions. Each of these recipes was easy and fun to prepare, with wonderfully unusual combinations of flavors. Highly recommended!!

'Life Sentences' is collection of essays from as long ago as the 1950s.

The essays are written by inmates and have the angle that the prison system is evil and that they are good men wronged by the world.

They complain about capital punishment and not getting to have glass containers in their cells with the same level of indignation.

In one section a prisoner is reported by the book itself to have been seen 16 feet from a murder scene, told law enforcement officials facts about the murder he couldn't have known unless saw the crime happen and then he pleaded guilty in court. The authors then state "There appears to have been little real evidence Williams actually committed the murder". Get real.

If you want a book about prisons instead of complaints by prisoners done wrong try 'Men Behind Bars' by Wayne Wooden and Jay Parker.

While there are newer books on prison life, this is still one of the best. It gives a surprisingly balanced view of past and current treatment of prisoners and a good look at prisoners' lives from their own perspective.

This is a book every socially conscious American should read. A collection of works from the only uncensored prison newspaper in America, the award-winning "Angolite", this books encompasses everything from the mundane to the extraordinary, from the poignant to the horrifying realities of prison life. It covers both the fiscal concerns and the human issues involved in incarceration. I highly recommend it.