The Ambassador Page #2

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That's the best you can hope for.

The worst you can hope for -

- is that you end up dead

in a ditch in Africa.

I'm giving it to you on a plate.

As the name says, the CAR is

situated in the middle of Africa.

It offers itself as a Jurassic Park -

- for people who long for Africa

of the 1970s.

If the Congo was the heart

of darkness, this is the appendix.

Some call it a failed state,

but this would only be true -

- if there at some point had ever

been a functioning state structure.

Instead there's a lawless territory

the size of Texas -

- where a couple of thousand poorly

equipped soldiers try to protect -

- the capital Bangui

from the horrors of the wilderness.

Here, a small political elite

spends most of its time -

- being involved

in criminal activities -

- while waiting for the weekly flight

to Paris, its former colonial master.

Of course, a country such as this

works as a magnet -

- on white men with hidden agendas.

- Wonderful, wonderful.

- I'm a Liberian, Paul.

- So now you're a Liberian?

- Yes, I'm a Liberian.

- You know how to struggle.

- Yes, I've been working a lot on it.

Paul is my charge d'affaires

in Bangui. He is a diplomat fixer.

We share a fascination with

the former Central African tyrant -

- the cannibal Emperor Bokassa

who went mad as a hatter.

Here we're touring the ruins

of Bokassa's jungle castle.

Magnificent.

People in Europe think of Bokassa

as an evil dictator -

- but how is he to people here?

Bokassa as such is very humanist,

because his first goal is -

- to develop the country.

To save the area.

So he used force -

- to remove those

who tried to make an obstacle.

He tried to put them away,

so they say that he killed them.

So with this passport we can go

to the Foreign Ministry to show it -

- and another department

as diplomat.

In the diplomat world they say,

if you're not at the table -

- you're on the menu.

So we have to get to the table.

To the places

where decisions are being made.

Because I don't want to be like

an air guitar diplomat.

You've been working for the Chinese?

They're difficult to cooperate with.

Very difficult.

Tell you what. I think there's a war

going on between the West and China.

It's a cold war, but it is a war, and

the front line is right here in Africa.

Because the Chinese are coming.

They want all the minerals -

- the natural resources.

They have no moral.

- They have no moral! Exactly!

- Now my head is bursting with ideas.

I have so many ideas,

so many visions.

We must work

on the diamond mining.

A diplomat at heart, I wanted to get

as many diamonds as possible.

Diamonds are a popular, secret side

business amongst Bangui diplomats.

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