


Book Review: ALL THE TROUBLE IN THE WORLD
  by Dave Bealer
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  Repent, the end of the world is near! You'd think it was
inevitable, what with all the (very fashionable) worrying about
famine, plague, overpopulation, racial hatred, and environmental
catastrophe. Doomsday myths have always been popular, but modern
pseudo-science gives them an air of authenticity that is very
seductive, even to the modern skeptical mind, unless you happen
to have the actual facts.

  P.J. O'Rourke has been poking holes in over-inflated egos and
debunking popular myths since the 1960s. A former editor of the
NATIONAL LAMPOON, these days he writes for ROLLING STONE, and
certainly gathers no moss, seeking out assignments as a correspondent
that allow him to travel where the action is around the world. Unlike
most popular economic/political commentators, O'Rourke has actually
been to places like Bangladesh, Somalia, Bosnia, and Vietnam. He
makes the most of these experiences, using them as the basis of his
latest best seller, ALL THE TROUBLE IN THE WORLD: The Lighter Side
of Overpopulation, Famine, Ecological Disaster, Ethnic Hatred, Plague,
and Poverty.

  In the section on overpopulation, O'Rourke points out that
Fremont, California, a tony city located on San Francisco Bay, has
the exact same population density as Bangladesh. Even the worst
doomsday predictions would leave the planet with the same population
density as the State of Pennsylvania. Anyone who has driven Interstate
80 through north central Pennsylvania can assure you that even in the
worst case scenario, there will still be plenty of desolate places
where people can "get away from it all."

  O'Rourke landed an assignment in Somalia, where he investigated
famine. P.J. discovered that there is really plenty of food in
Somalia. You don't even need food stamps to get it, just an AK-47.
Statistics prove that the modern world grows a lot more food, feeds
a lot more people than ever before, yet suffers from more famine.
O'Rourke notes that "This would seem to defy physical law . . .
When a thing defies physical law, there's usually politics involved."

  A long time commentator on American cultural eccentricities,
O'Rourke is really in his element when he gets going on the shambles
that is the American environmental movement. Starting off with the
U.S. Government's horrendous record as a steward of the environment,
he finishes with a summary of his attendance at the 1992 Earth Summit
in Rio de Janeiro. Along the way, he takes well deserved swipes at
such noted environmental "thinkers" as Henry David Thoreau and
Roderick Nash.

  O'Rourke sums up his treatise on global suffering with a
chapter on Economic Justice, subtitled: "The Hell with Everything,
Let's Get Rich." As an example he uses the Republic of Vietnam.
Although still a communist dictatorship, the citizens of Vietnam
"have let go of Marx with both hands." Everyone in the country is
hustling, making things or providing services on the side, in
addition to whatever "official" job they might have. O'Rourke notes
that "You can do pretty much what you want to do in Vietnam. You are
not, however, supposed to have opinions about doing it." To give you
an idea how well the country is doing, just 20 years after the last
helicopter lifted off the roof of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon --
Vietnam is sending food aid to the former Soviet Union.

  ALL THE TROUBLE IN THE WORLD: The Lighter Side of Overpopulation,
Famine, Ecological Disaster, Ethnic Hatred, Plague, and Poverty.
by P.J. O'Rourke; Atlantic Monthly Press, ISBN: 0-87113-580-9  $22

                              {DREAM}

Copyright 1995 Dave Bealer, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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Dave Bealer is a thirty-something mainframe systems programmer who
works with CICS, MVS and all manner of nasty acronyms at one of the
largest heavy metal shops on the East Coast. He shares a waterfront
townhome in Pasadena, MD. with two cats who annoy him endlessly as he
writes and publishes electronically. Dave can be reached via e-mail
at: dave.bealer@dreamforge.com
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Sound Byte:

  "Everybody wants to save the earth; nobody wants to help
   Mom do the dishes."  - P.J. O'Rourke
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