Ndjamena
Third-world airports are more satisfactory than ours in every department. They are more efficiently run. There is no need to walk several miles to your departure gate. They tend not to be disgustingly overcrowded like Heathrow or Gatwick. They smell much nicer, and the food is incomparably better. Furthermore the scene is more interesting. Large colourful insects fly around. Enormous lizards run up and down the walls. As we waited in Ndjamena to follow President Idris Deby for a day’s campaigning in southern Chad, an owl surveyed the scene from the top of the aircraft hangar while rabbits and exquisite little gazelles danced around the airfield.
The dilemma facing President Deby as he prepared for the national elections on 3 May bore comparison with Tony Blair’s. His decision to stand for a third term of office caused convulsions among his inner circle.
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