Mr. Thriplow bought his first and last lottery ticket in Vera Cruz. He had had two glasses of tequila to give himself the courage to board the awful little hundred-ton Mexican barge with an auxiliary engine which was the only method of getting to the small tropical state he wanted to visit. (…)
Source: Greene, Graham “The Lottery Ticket.” (1947). In: The Last Word and Other Stories. Reinhardt 1990 and Penguin 1991.
Available at pp. 80-96 at [🔗]. You need to sign up for free to the non-profit digital public library Internet Archives at [🔗].
current affairs
The Zambian-born economist Dambisa Moyo argues that development aid has unintended consequences that are detrimental for the receiving countries.
links
Deborah Solomon “The Anti-Bono—Interview with Dambisa Moyo.” New York Times, 19 Feb 2009. [🔗]
questions
1. What are the political forces that are operative on the island? What difference does Thriplow’s money make to the political landscape?
2. The daughter of the leader of the opposition says to Thriplow: “I can see you are a kind man. Only ignorant … of life.” What does she mean? In what respects is Thriplow being naïve?
3. What do you make of the last paragraph? What is the reference of “a phrase came back to him out of his childhood about one who had so loved the world”? Why is it that he comes to hate “the whole condition of human life”? (Graham Greene was Roman Catholic, though he objected to being characterised as a Roman Catholic author.)
4. In her book Dead Aid: Why Aid is not Working and Why There Is a Better Way for Africa, (2009), the Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo is critical of both foreign and humanitarian aid. What arguments does she offer against aid in the interview with Deborah Solomon?