.... make me think of Namibia, with all the wide open spaces. With so little natural greenery obstructing the view, it's the best place to get a licence. (Namibia, that is. For me.) And like the apartheid-ruled Namibia, they're very keen BOTH on checkpoints and security, AND on highways where you can go superfast. So if you're in the strongmen's good books, you can zip around more carefree than most places. And if not, well you can end up like my friend J. who was doing fieldwork in the Palestinian territories, and spend an entire day at checkpoints trying to get from places as far apart as South and North London. She's also the one who told me that the colour of the sticker that airport security puts on your passport is a signal to all checkpoint staff what level of a risk you are. The friend I was travelling with had the colour of 'Grade II terrorist' since he works in Gaza. So we decided not even to try to enter Jericho, which is walled in as 'Palestinian territory'.
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