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So Many Enemies So Little Time An American Woman in All the Wrong Places Elinor Burkett 9780060524432 Books

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So Many Enemies So Little Time An American Woman in All the Wrong Places Elinor Burkett 9780060524432 Books

Just finished Elinor Burkett's So Many Enemies, So Little Time.

I liked it a lot. It's really a Marco Polo travel diary for today. Burkett provides needed background to world events, in a lively personal style. Fun to read, and you can think about it afterwards, too. The book recounts Burkett's adventures in Kyrgystan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Russia, Burma (officially Myanmar), China, Vietnam, and Cambodia during the 2001-2002 events, when she was a Fulbright Scholar. I agree with her view that the Fulbright program is one US government initiative that really works as it was intended. She explains how her view of the world changed after her experience teaching abroad in the wake of 9/11--just the kind of growth experience Senator Fulbright wanted. Burkett has a real gift for noticing the interesting detail. Her description of the little things at her university in Bishkek--such as wandering around the hall trying to find a classroom after being kicked out for some sort of seminar--tracked pretty exactly to my experience at UWED in Tashkent (which I was pleased to see she called the Harvard of Central Asia). Burkett's observations are generally acute, the most telling ones based on her personal confrontations with age-old traditions.

Most of all, I enjoyed Burkett's Kyrgyz anecdotes, which I think reflect a certain mentality--and reality--in the region. Here's a sample:

While walking in the countryside, two Uzbeks and two Kyrgyz fell in a hole. "I'll give you a hand up," the younger Uzbek said to the older. "Then, when you're on solid ground, you can pull me up." The older man agreed, the Uzbeks freed themselves and then went on their way.

The two Kyrgyz men looked at each other grimly, and one began climbing out of the hole on his own. "Hey, you can't do that," yelled the other man, pulling on his companion's legs. "If you get out, I'll be alone and stranded."


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So Many Enemies So Little Time An American Woman in All the Wrong Places Elinor Burkett 9780060524432 Books Reviews

With remarkably unlucky timing, Elinor Burkett and her husband, Dennis, arrive in Kyrgyzstan a week before September 11, 2001. They came to Central Asia in a fit of midlife restlessness, and get rather more than they bargained for.

Europe was too easy and South America too familiar. So they decided on Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet Republic, and Burkett got a job as a journalism teacher at the Kyrgyz university for a year. After September 11, they decided to stay and stick it out. After all, the attacks had been in their home of Manhattan, halfway around the world.

For the next year, in between teaching her journalism classes, Burkett and her husband visited Afghanistan, Mongolia, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, and most of the other -stans. Remarkably enough, they faced almost no physical threats, and nearly everyone they met was fascinated with their American-ness. In every country they visited, even during the Afghanistan war and the run-up to the Iraq invasion, they were welcomed by the people, if not by the border guards, and made to feel welcome.

What Elinor and Dennis experienced is what America has experienced internationally -- people everywhere disagreed with American foreign policy, but they welcomed actual Americans. Nearly everyone they encountered, in every country, resented American "meddling" and arrogance, thought that America had brought the New York attacks on themselves, and yet were perfectly willing to share their homes with two American travelers.

As a journalist, Burkett knows how to tell a story. So Many Enemies, So Little Time starts off on September 11, 2001, then fills in the gaps a little later. She is very opinionated, and never hesitates to tell her guests and students what she thinks or if their arguments are weak. In spite of this candor, she doesn't seem to fit a blatantly left or right political stereotype. By the time I finished the book, I still couldn't predict who she will vote for in November, 2004. This works in her favor, because if there had been an obvious bias to the right, I wouldn't have been inclined to continue reading, and I'm sure those with a right-wing tendency would feel similarly if the book had been obviously left-leaning.

It's a real eye-opener to find out what the average Uzbek or Iranian thinks about America, especially during the events following September 11. By the end of the year of travel, Burkett has reached her limit of hearing America being criticized for interfering too much and for not helping enough. She lashes out, at least on paper, at those who hold America to a higher standard than other countries and who conveniently forget the sins of former Western powers like Germany, Britain, and even Belgium. But her exasperation clouds her reason -- she tells her journalism class that although America had allowed slavery once, we realized it was wrong and stopped it. She doesn't mention that the actual people holding slaves had to be forced to give up slavery after a bloody war. I wonder why she doesn't cut the old European empires the same slack she does for America?

So Many Enemies, So Little Time is a real slap-in-the-face of a book. You will have a strong opinion about it, one way or another.
Fascinating!
Great Book-A++++++++++
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Just finished Elinor Burkett's So Many Enemies, So Little Time.

I liked it a lot. It's really a Marco Polo travel diary for today. Burkett provides needed background to world events, in a lively personal style. Fun to read, and you can think about it afterwards, too. The book recounts Burkett's adventures in Kyrgystan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Russia, Burma (officially Myanmar), China, Vietnam, and Cambodia during the 2001-2002 events, when she was a Fulbright Scholar. I agree with her view that the Fulbright program is one US government initiative that really works as it was intended. She explains how her view of the world changed after her experience teaching abroad in the wake of 9/11--just the kind of growth experience Senator Fulbright wanted. Burkett has a real gift for noticing the interesting detail. Her description of the little things at her university in Bishkek--such as wandering around the hall trying to find a classroom after being kicked out for some sort of seminar--tracked pretty exactly to my experience at UWED in Tashkent (which I was pleased to see she called the Harvard of Central Asia). Burkett's observations are generally acute, the most telling ones based on her personal confrontations with age-old traditions.

Most of all, I enjoyed Burkett's Kyrgyz anecdotes, which I think reflect a certain mentality--and reality--in the region. Here's a sample

While walking in the countryside, two Uzbeks and two Kyrgyz fell in a hole. "I'll give you a hand up," the younger Uzbek said to the older. "Then, when you're on solid ground, you can pull me up." The older man agreed, the Uzbeks freed themselves and then went on their way.

The two Kyrgyz men looked at each other grimly, and one began climbing out of the hole on his own. "Hey, you can't do that," yelled the other man, pulling on his companion's legs. "If you get out, I'll be alone and stranded."