Joost de Vries

A journalist visits the UN compound in Goma, Congo, for a report. He is warned beforehand not to look at Africa with too Western an eye and to distrust his senses. Once there, he realizes why.

‘It was without a doubt the most remarkable thing I had ever seen, and the most disastrous, but it didn’t feel that way. I saw the bus turn into a fireball and flip over on its side — the impact seemed to come of its own accord, like the engine had a burst, like someone with a huge hiccup — but it took two, maybe three seconds before I heard the bang, and after those two, three seconds it seemed like old news. […] That’s what I felt: it didn’t feel live.’