Emergency Sex is a book that I've wanted to read for a long time since I read a review of it on Salon.com. It was written by three people who initially met in Cambodia in the early 90s during the UN inspired elections following the fall of the Khmer Rouge. After that time they found themselves in some of the other humanitarian hotspots throughout the world: Somalia, Haiti, Rwanda, Liberia, and Bosnia. They each give first hand accounts of their experiences in these hostile areas. There are two Americans, Kenneth Cain and Heidi Postlewait, and a New Zealander, Andrew Thomson. All three are extraordinary writers in really hellish situations. And they are persuasive in their criticism of how the US through their foreign policy and the UN have failed in their missions. They cite the pull out in Somalia and its effect on humanitarian ventures that followed as a prime example of those failures. It makes me wonder what would have happened had I turned in the application that I had filled out for Peace Corps, but didn't turn in the year before I started graduate school. It's the kind of thing that has to be done while one is young, so I feel as though the window of opportunity has passed, but I still feel the urge to help those less fortunate than us. It was an inspiring book in that sense, people devoted to their ideals and fellow man. But then again all of them eventually got burned out. And I have to say that Heidi's account was a bit sensationalistic, it seemed to emphasize the personal/sexual encounters with the tall dark men in the counties she inhabited. Perhaps I am being priggish, but it seems that her role in these areas was often more or less administrative, however, she did commit to live in dangerous places for years at a time to help other less fortunate people. All three of the authors are capable writers. A frank and refreshing look at the lives of the people who have made sacrifices to help other in crisis.
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