Betrayal Of Trust Pb (Paperback)

The book is 550 pages with 230 pages of footnotes. I note this because sometimes, including this time, I order a book without looking at how many pages it is. This one was a surprise for me when I opened the box from Amazon.

The print is very small. I had to go out and buy magnifying glasses. It was either that or use arm extensions. I am very old though. The footnotes are even smaller, and the numbers of the footnotes are impossibly small. You don't have to read all of the footnotes. Some of them are just ibid's and idem's. But there is more interesting detail in some of them.

By quoting similar statistics about the same issue in the same paragraph, she seems to contradict herself until you figure it out and can move on, slowing down your pace. Note the "old" reference above...it may simply be me.

Other than that I found the book very interesting. As I talked about it with others, many asked to "borrow" it after I completed it. I find this a little bothersome sometimes, don't you? You get the book back about half the time.

The chapters on Russia and America were the most interesting. The ones on Kitwik and India were the least. By far, the Russian chapter was the scariest. Had I read this book before going there last year I might not have gone. DON'T DRINK THE WATER, including ice cubes (giardia). I never drink water when I'm in another country. I find it safest to stick with beer, and bottled water to brush my teeth. Anyway, this was her best chapter by far (it's very long) giving a more human element than any other chapter and far more interesting detail about everyday life for some. It was the chapter that made me want to send money to someone, especially that woman and her ill son. Sometimes I just have to put myself between children and odds bigger than they. It's the father instinct in me.

The book was written before 9/11 and I kept wondering, when reading the American chapter, what difference that would have made in her narrative. Oh, and I'll never doubt soldiers who complain of things like Gulf War Syndome again.

Remember when local health departments tested you for TB and other things before you could get a food handler's permit to be a waiter or a meat cutter or whatever, and they'd also trace one's sexual partners when one got treated for a sexually transmitted disease (note "old" reference once again)? They don't do that anymore. Our health department doesn't even care. I called them yesterday and asked them if I had an STD (not much chance of that anymore) should I tell all my sexual partners or would they. The answers? "Naw" and "NO." That's interesting, isn't it? One, it suggests that the author is correct in that the government is betraying us in matters of public health. Two, it suggests that I have way too much time on my hands.