"Paul Park - The Tourist" - читать интересную книгу автора (Park Paul)

of
various denominations: Mormon, Seventh Day Adventist and Jehovah's
Witness. We passed the headquarters of several international relief
organizations, and then I must have dozed off momentarily, for when I
opened my eyes we were in a different kind of neighbourhood entirely, a
neighbourhood of sleek highrises and villas covered with flowering
vines.
The cab pulled up in front of a Belgian restaurant called Pepe le Moko,
and we got out. Paul paid the driver before I could get my money, and
then
 waved away the bills I offered him; he had said nothing during the
ride,
but had sat staring out the window with an expression half rueful and
half
amused. Now he smiled more broadly and motioned me inside the
restaurant--
it was an expensive place, full of white people in short-sleeved shirts
and ties.
"I thought we'd get some breakfast," he said.
We ordered French toast and coffee, which came almost immediately. I
spooned some artificial creamer into mine and offered the jar to him,
but
he wrinkled his nose. "I'm sure it's all right," he said.
"What do you mean?"
He shrugged. "You know the United States government pays for its
projects
here by shipping them some of our agricultural surplus. It's a terrible
idea, because it makes the population dependent on staples that can't
be
grown locally; at any rate, Dr Mog sells it, and then uses the money,
supposedly, to finance USAID, and famine relief, whatever. Well, my
first
year there was a shipment of a thousand tons of wheat, which they
packed
in the same container as a load of PCV's, which was being sent to some
plastics factory. When it got here, the customs people claimed the
wheat
was contaminated and couldn't be sold. They sequestered it in
warehouses
while the US sent a scientist who said it was okay. But as they argued
back and forth, the wheat was sold anyway. And then the raw PCV's began
to
show up also here in San Juan, in some of the poorer restaurants. It's
a
white powder, it's soluble in water, and it's got a kind of chalky,
milky
taste, apparently."
"Thanks for telling me," I said.
"That's okay. It was a shambles. The Minister of Health was fired,
before