I arrived after dusk at Toussaint Louverture Airport and was relieved to see someone holding a board with my name on it. The State Department and Foreign Office websites had been very discouraging. A taciturn young man from Sécurité whisked me through passport control and into a tacky VIP lounge, then down some steps to an exit, watched over by an unsmiling female security guard. Without saying a word, the young man left me in a dark and deserted parking lot beside the terminal. I had been warned that airport taxis routinely kidnap their passengers, but there were no taxis around anyway. I decided to return to the VIP lounge, where I eventually met a few other invitees to the Unesco conference. Outside, a bus was waiting to collect us.

LRB 8 October 2009 | PDF Download