Chapter 17 Summary and Analysis

A 1990 piece for Parade begins with Vonnegut strapped into a jet bound for Maputo, asking John Yale who the good and bad guys are in Mozambique. Vonnegut is on a trip sponsored by CARE in hopes ordinary Americans will contribute once they learn about the manmade agony. He knows only that Mozambique is as beautiful and habitable as California, underpopulated and a Garden of Eden turned into a manmade hell. Yale works for World Vision, an American evangelical Christian charity bringing supplies to 1 million helpless refugees driven from their homes, schools and hospitals by fellow Mozambicans, the National Resistance of Mozambique (RENAMO), an anti-Marxist gang of thugs U.S. Neo-Cons love. Yale takes no sides but clearly disapproves of RENAMO's raping, murdering and pillaging uncontrollably since 1976. They transfer to a twin-engined Cessna flown by bush pilot Jim Friesen, flying high to...