The Saddest Country: On Assignment In Colombia [Hardcover]

Nicholas Coghlan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 30, 2004

Nicholas Coghlan arrived in Bogata in 1997. A political officer for the Canadian government, it was his responsibility to report on Columbia's complex civil conflict, lobby the Colombian authorities on human rights, and provide visible moral support and other assistance to the victims of the war. Soon after he arrived it became apparent that he could not fulfill these functions from the relative peace and security of Bogata and he found himself traveling to remote and sometimes dangerous locations rarely visited by outsiders - the coca fields of Putumayo, the swamps of the Darien Gap, the vast savannahs of the Llano - meeting with everyone from impoverished inhabitants of the borrios to guerrilla leaders, from human rights activists to military commanders.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book gives an excellent understanding of a very sad situation in an otherwise rich and wonderful country. Coghlan's descriptions, stories, and anecdotes are excellent and provoke a strong sympathy and emotional attachment with the people of Colombia." Honourable Warren Allmand, P.C., O.C., Q.C., International Human Rights Consultant"

Product Details

• Hardcover: 263 pages
• Publisher: Mcgill Queens Univ Pr (November 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0773527877
• ISBN-13: 978-0773527874
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,651,217 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Nicholas (Nick) Coghlan earned a degree at Oxford University (UK) before fleeing with his wife Jenny to sunnier Argentina in 1978. He used the excuse of employment at St George's College, Buenos Aires, to travel all over Patagonia for three years, then moved to Vancouver Island, British Columbia, where another teaching job permitted him to take up sailing. From 1985 to 1989 Nick and Jenny sailed around the world in their 27ft yacht Tarka the Otter, one of the smallest Canadian vessels then to have accomplished this feat. In 1991, seeking to get paid to travel, Nick joined the Canadian Foreign Service. Postings took him and Jenny successively to Mexico City, Bogota, Cape Town, Khartoum and Islamabad, with unavoidable stints in wintry Ottawa in between. He was the first Canadian diplomat ever posted to Sudan, and the first Canadian Consul General in Cape Town but his spell in Islamabad - interspersed with bombs and travel to the peaks of the Hindu Kush - was perhaps the most exciting. Meanwhile, he took two leaves of absence from diplomacy to go sailing again: from Cape Town back to Patagonia (a voyage recounted in Winter in Fireland) then onwards into the Pacific. Nick and Jenny are currently aboard Bosun Bird, their rugged Vancouver 27 yacht, in Japan's Inland Sea. Their travels (including to Patagonia) are charted on their website at www.bosunbird.com.