Happy Dictators!!

I'm sure I'll meet many happy-go-lucky dictators.



"An Idiot Abroad"

Well, they finished up the series in the best way possible. The whining host of the show often spoke with fond memories of his trips to Wales. They sent him there. He looked as miserable as anywhere else. This helps illustrate that he is just a miserable no fun bastard. It was interesting watching him whine his way through several countries. I can't help but think that it would have been fun to get him into more life threatening situations. One that came to my mind is the running of the bulls. I'd have had him dress up for it and not told him what it was about. Then, I'd have had someone with a laptop show him the opening scene from the movie city slickers and say "See that? Hear that cannon that just went off? I'll give you three guesses what is now on it's way!"

I don't think they will get him to do another series in this same vein.

The two executive producers, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant had different things (in addition to putting together a show) they wanted to achieve. Stephen Merchant wanted to expand Karl Pilkington's world. He failed. Ricky Gervais had (IMO) a much better goal - he wanted to torture Karl Pilkington. Ricky succeeded.

If this guy was an American, he'd be called a typical 'Ugly American' - since he is a Brit, they just call him an 'idiot'.



Just judging by this rough map, I don't think I'll be 'feeling the rains down in Africa' any time soon.




I'm not a politician but with the three big problems I'm seeing
a) You can't just show up at the border and buy a visa
b) You need various immunizations due to all kinds of diseases
c) AIDS - sure it's a disease but it's severe enough I think it deserves it's own bullet point
d) Ongoing conflict - including al-Qaeda terrorists hanging out and snatching folks

I'm thinking WTF? I believe that it is very hard living there and such but wow, it's not a really 'tourist friendly' place. I may in the future find out some information that makes me think "I should go there" but right now I'm thinking the risk/cost vs reward is just really not looking good.

Either the very north (the Arabic places) or the very south places look OK. Not sure how I'd get to the southern places easily but right now most of the center of Africa kinda looks...rough...