search for something...

search for something you might like...

Lonely Planet (Part 1) BBC, Foreign Office and Other Insidious or Lazy Sunbathers blasted by Ambrose in Morocco

Lonely Planet (Part 1)

BBC, Foreign Office and Other Insidious or Lazy Sunbathers blasted by Ambrose in Morocco

by Joe Ambrose, Literary Editor (2005-2018)
first published: October, 2007

approximate reading time: minutes

when it comes to Morocco, which I'm currently navigating with the latest edition of the Moroccan guide for company, Lonely Planet are selling one a bill of goods

There is a fine Lonely Planet scene in the novel Are You Experienced? by William Sutcliffe, an underestimated work concerning an English idiot on his gap year in India. One night the narrator is staying in a backpacker hostel listening in on a conversation between two hardened "travellers" concerning whether the most important book about India is the Bhagavad Gita or the Lonely Planet Guide to India.

The overriding reputation of Lonely Planet maintains that they're backpacker's bibles, reliable sources of information for putative flower children who want to roam the world on a shoestring. That the world and the publishing company have moved on  since that was the case - if it ever was - has done little to dent this reputation.

The reality is that the Lonely Planet Guide of today differs hardly at all from all the other guides when it comes to recommending places to stay or eat. Like all such books, it aims at a prosperous middle class white travellers in search of home comforts like air conditioning, pizza, and McDonalds while enjoying mid-priced holidays at the expense of other people's misery.

Certainly, when it comes to Morocco, which I'm currently navigating with the latest edition of the Moroccan guide for company, Lonely Planet are selling one a bill of goods. Now that the company have been bought up by the insidious and Islamaphobic BBC, we can expect to see that bill of goods expand and prosper for the BBC, especially as it relates to the world of Islam, is in the British Foreign Office's back pocket. The Foreign Office funds the BBC World Service, where a load on old Hampstead Protestant and Jewish trouts devote huge amounts of intellectual energy to proving to their own satisfaction how fundamentally backward and repressive Islamic life is, especially when it comes to matters of sex and marriage.

Joe Ambrose
Literary Editor (2005-2018)

Joe Ambrose wrote 14 books, including Chelsea Hotel Manhattan and The Fenian Reader. Joe sadly passed away in 2018. Visit Joe's website which was completed just before his passing, for more info: JoeAmbrose.co.uk.
about Joe Ambrose »»

Armoires week web banner

RECENT STORIES

RANDOM READS

All About and Contributors

HELP OUTSIDELEFT

Outsideleft exists on a precarious no budget budget. We are interested in hearing from deep and deeper pocket types willing to underwrite our cultural vulture activity. We're not so interested in plastering your product all over our stories, but something more subtle and dignified for all parties concerned. Contact us and let's talk. [HELP OUTSIDELEFT]

WRITE FOR OUTSIDELEFT

If Outsideleft had arms they would always be wide open and welcoming to new writers and new ideas. If you've got something to say, something a small dank corner of the world needs to know about, a poem to publish, a book review, a short story, if you love music or the arts or anything else, write something about it and send it along. Of course we don't have anything as conformist as a budget here. But we'd love to see what you can do. Write for Outsideleft, do. [SUBMISSIONS FORM HERE]

OUTSIDELEFT UNIVERSE

Ooh Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha May 29th
OUTSIDELEFT Night Out
weekend

outsideleft content is not for everyone