- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Ebury Press (Feb 3 2005)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0091901642
- ISBN-13: 978-0091901646
- Product Dimensions: 21 x 13.6 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 340 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,198,570 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
'These three voices from the world's front line are personal, these three characters from global ground zero are fallible; their youth and idealism, faults and failures, and triumphs and tears, all work to humanise recent history and ring it home for a reckoning.', Saturday Times .'Vividly told and this book is all the more engaging because its perspective is personal before it is political', Daily Mail .'It is impossible not to admire the authors both for doing their work for so long, and being able to find strength and vision to recall the happiness and the horror. This is a powerful, humane and important book', Waterstones Books Quarterly .'This is in every sense a hell of a good book, a powerful testament of the limits of peacekeeping in today's war zone - acutely observed, and told with astonishing immediacy', Philip Gourevitch author of, We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families .'Heart wrenching stuff', Metro
Product Description
In the early 1990s three young people attracted to the ambitious global peacekeeping work of the UN cross paths in Cambodia. Andrew strives for a better world through his life-saving work as a doctor. Heidi, a social worker, is in need of a challenge and a paycheck, and Ken is fresh from Harvard and brimful of idealism. As their stories interweave through the years, from Rwanda, Bosnia and Somalia to Haiti, the trio reveal a world of witnessed atrocities, primal fear, desperate loneliness and base desires. They fend off terror and futility with revelry, humour and sex; ask hard questions about the world order America has created, the true power of the UN, and whether there is any possibility for change. This is a startling celebration of the power of humour and friendship, of the limits of human compassion, and the need for a warm body and a cold beer during a Condition Echo lockdown. A book that shows the human cost of global politics and the tragic truth that wars are much more avoidable than our governments would ever admit. A brilliant, provocatively funny and fast moving book.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.2 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Disconcerting, unsettling and most horribly true, Oct 1 2005
By A. Woodley "Patroness, Janeites, the Austen list" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Emergency Sex (And Other Desperate Measures): True Stories from a War Zone (Paperback)
The UN tried to punish the three authors of this book after it was published. Unfortunately the wirting was just too close to the bone for them, clearly, it is too much to think of instituting changes to their procedures. And when you read this book you can see why. It is in institutionalised bureaucracy, just like any other large amorphous institution. And its faults are writ large by Heidi, Andrew and Ken.This is ultimately one of the most disturbing reads I have had all year. It covers these three UN workers through various postings all over the world including places like Cambodia, Mogadishu, Haiti and Rwanda - and the disturbing part is what they have to deal with both externally and internally from the UN. There are blood thirsty riots outside the compound gates, random shootings, sheer inertia, entrenched bureaucracy of endless futile filing and death, constant death and pain.
I didn't really like the style of writing, the story jumps between the three of them who contribute a page or so intermittently following a clear time frame of when they meet in Cambodia in the first free elections. At time the disjointedness of the telling I felt distracted from what was actually happening. This is also a very personal account and the authors don't set out to be personally likeable themselves at all times. It really is a warts and all.
Given the subject they have taken on, it is not surprising. The failure of the UN is very much in the people it uses to do its work, and that is at all levels, inertia and poor judgement stem from them and their implementation of the system. The problem is as deep and as wide as the people.
The shocking failure of the UN has meant terrible consequences for local populations - in Rwanda, and Haiti massacres occured. And while the UN did not cause it, they did not prevent it happening as they were supposed to do. Unfortunately I cannot imagine this bookwill have the effect it is meant to, that is highlight the problems and rally change. Here's hoping.
Disturbing reading
5.0 out of 5 stars
Young people should read this book., May 19 2012
By Alistair Speirs - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Emergency Sex (And Other Desperate Measures): True Stories from a War Zone (Paperback)
I think this is an important book, in several ways. That may seem like a grand claim but I think if this book had been in existence when I was an undergraduate, and I had happened to read it, it might well have changed my life (not that I am at all discontented with the way things turned out). It is also important in that it documents so much inhumanity - in Cambodia, Rwanda, Somalia and Bosnia - and the flawed, yet essentially humane work, of the UN. The world needs more people like the three authors.Apart from anything else the book is a good read - I did not put it down very often until I finished it. I see one of the other commenters had a problem with Heidi including her sexual exploits but I appreciated the honesty of her writing.
I have said that young people should read this book because I think it is a real horizon-widener. It has the potential to turn someone's life to a more fulfilling purpose.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Emergency Sex and other desperate measures, April 21 2012
By Alita Hernandez "Book Lady" - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Emergency Sex (And Other Desperate Measures): True Stories from a War Zone (Paperback)
I really enjoyed most of the book. The adventure and the way this book was written is very catchy. I was surprised at the freedom Heidi felt in her travels around the world. She was totally outside the bar. The two professionals did so much good for the world but felt reluctant to realize it.Some of this book is disturbing as to the genocide of the Rwandas and Haitans also Liberia and Cambodia. Andrew deserves a million dollars for his work as a humanitarian. I salute him and all he did. I have no idea how he survived all that.
All in all it is a very good read and will keep you spellbound. This is not a boring book.
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