As a former foreign correspondent (for Australian television)I also spent time in Somalia, Rwanda and Sudan. I picked up this book out of curiosity but without much in the way of expectations.

Having read it, I am stunned and in awe.

There are many more famous and exalted names in foreign journalism than Scott Peterson's - at least until now. The sheer passion of his reporting, the level of his commitment, his fearlessness both when faced by African violence and the equally grotesque rationalisations of those who clumsily intervene (and those who fail to intervene)deserve him a place in the highest rankings.

He stuck with Somalia when most of the rest of the world lost interest (I plead guilty). He took trouble to understand the Somali perspective when most others saw it as an American story. He writes illuminatingly about Sudan - perhaps the world's most overlooked war zone, rich in terrible, hopeless, wasteful loss. His writings on Rwanda add renewed freshness to the gut-churning horrors of the genocide - after Gourevitch's "We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families" apparently left little more to be said.

Peterson returns the degraded craft of journalism to its purest form: he "bears witness." He risks his life to do so. He loses friends. He confesses his fear. He disdains received wisdom. He redeems the lazy journalism of the pampered hacks with one eye on the room service menu and the other on how well their "heroism" will play back home.

Anyone with an interest in Africa, reporting, the nature of the human condition, the politics of humanitarian intervention, or just a damn good, disturbing read about the ways of the world would do well to read this book.


Well worth reading irrespective of policy beliefs   June 24, 2000
 9 out of 9 found this review helpful

Mr Peterson does an amazing job of bringing the reader to an understandng of the tragedy that occurred in the three countries that he focuses upon Somalia, Rwanada and Sudan)but he does so without pushing the reader over the edge into compassion fatigue. His book is also extremely useful for understanding some of what actually happened at the time; for the first time I actually have an understanding of the dynamic that existed between the Tutsi and Hutus. His inclusion of Sudan is remarkable and notable given that it is one of the most overlooked conflicts in American eyes, yet well worth understanding. Mr Peterson also makes clear the paradox that relief agencies face in alleviating suffering when their efforts can actually prolong conflict.

The excellent writing was the only thing that kept me going through the more emotionally disturbing sections. Finally,the photo insert, while unsettling, was an extremely important addition to the whole experience of reading the book.


Interesting point of view of a difficult situation   June 5, 2000
 5 out of 18 found this review helpful

This book is an interesting exploration of the horrible events in Africa, although it relates amazing circumstances with a dispassionate and detached perspective. Peterson does beneft from the value of 20/20 hindsight joining in the anti-military rhetoric, using questionable sources as times to validate his perspective. Despite factual inaccuracies and the hard-to-justify moral blame he puts on the United Nations (over African warlords), it is, regardless, a first hand account of events the world would rather forget.


Underwhelming account littered with factual inaccuracies   May 15, 2000
 6 out of 16 found this review helpful

I was very disappointed with Scott Peterson's book on a number of levels. As a former humanitarian aid worker (not in Africa, but with friends in Somalia and Sudan and Rhwanda) I was hoping to read a report that portrays life on the frontline and the emotions and difficulties of that life. Scott Peterson manages to write about some of the worst atrocities that have occurred with little insight to what it was like to be there, more like a legal briefing than an insider's look. His narrative manages to lose touch with the horrors that overwhelmed these countries, which one would assume he witnessed. In addition, the book was littered with factual inaccuracies about the various events and individuals involved in these conflicts. As the world watched with horror as warlords in Somalia kept food from their dying countrymen, Peterson finds ways to justify Aidid's actions and portray him sometimes in a positive light while lamblasting U.S. and U.N. efforts to bring peace and humanity back to Somalia. While no one would argue that the U.S. and the U.N. did not accomplish their goals in Somalia, Peterson loses sight of the fact that the world unfortunately couldn't stomach the casualties that would have been necessary to truly bring peace and disarmament to places like Somalia. Peterson seems to have been more set on putting forth a personal agenda than showing what really happened.

The most unfortunate thing about Peterson's book is that it will feed into the world's apathy to deal with problems such as Somalia, by showing that there is little to gain from even trying to help.


The Collapse Of A Continent   May 14, 2000
 14 out of 16 found this review helpful

What can be said about Africa? Can slavery and colonialism provide sufficient explanation for the butchery and systemic collapse we see there today? The answers are unclear, but Me Against My Brother provides yet another chilling account of the implosion of Sub-Saharan Africa, in this case through a war-correspondent's view of recent and ongoing mayhem in Somalia, Sudan and Rwanda. The book also provides an excellent overview of the West's fumbling, well-intentioned and frequently counter-productive efforts to relieve the massive suffering, most of which is the direct result of tribal conflict, the deliberate engineering of famine by African warlords, and the manipulation of international relief organizations by clans hell-bent on extermination. The story of Western intervention in these conflicts should be required reading for all advocates of humanitarian assistance. The United States, after a misguided, frequently incompetent and murderous fiasco in Somalia, not only disengaged from such pursuits, but actively discouraged other Western nations from intervening in Rwanda, just as the Hutu were sharpening their machetes against the Tutsi. When the RPF invaded from Uganda, ending the mindless slaughter and creating a Hutu exodus out of Rwanda, the West saw only another refugee crisis and proceeded to feed and REARM the Hutu killers, hiding in all too-familiar style behind a human shield of starving and truly innocent Hutus. So, 50 years after the Holocaust in Europe, which we are constantly lectured never to forget, which must never be allowed to happen again, the West not only ignores one of the largest genocides of the Century, but actively feeds and rearms the killers afterwards. The reaction to Rwanda was probably instrumental in our murderous involvement in the former Yugoslavia. This is policy as reaction and counter-reaction, evolving towards...what? Finally, the story of Sudan is perhaps the most chilling of all in its implications for Africa's future. Originally a justified revolt of the South against a harsh and (again) homicidal Islamic government in the North, the Southern resistance splits and re-splits along tribal lines, each clan staging the usual massacres of innocents, herding them through the desert to attract food-relief, most of which goes to feed the armies. Multiply these stories throughout Africa, mix in AIDs and rampant corruption, then ask yourself: can Africa survive? Personally, I think the answer is no. For anyone interested in the collapse of civilizations, I highly recommend this book.