Holidaymakers in the UK are increasingly booking trips to places traditionally associated with the luxury travel sector.

According to Holidays-Direct, top-end destinations such as the United Arab Emirates are attracting a higher-than-average number of bookings this year.

The online travel agency believes this is because British consumers want to make the most of their holiday time and ensure that it is a memorable trip.

Jon Pearce, spokesperson for Holidays-Direct, suggested that this could be partly because the economy in the UK is faltering, while the weather has also been less than ideal at home.

He commented: "We all need cheering up, so a holiday is a luxury that has become a necessity for many."

Mr Pearce added that people are increasingly planning ahead and booking their trips abroad well in advance.

This comes after TUI Travel revealed that many British tourists are upgrading their holidays to more expensive alternatives.

The firm said his is partly because people are feeling miserable as a result of the economic downturn in Britain.

Opened in 1955 by Conrad Hilton, The Beverly Hilton has produced the perfect combination of traditional elegance and Hollywood glamour for over 50 years.

Owned by entertainer, Merv Griffin from 1987 to 2003, Beny Alagem and Oasis West Realty LLC purchased The Beverly Hilton in late 2003.

With the completion of an $80 million renovation, the Beverly Hilton has emerged as a beacon of modern luxury and sophistication synonymous with Beverly Hills.

The AAA 4-Diamond hotel is located on 9 acres in the heart of Beverly Hills at the intersection of world famous Santa Monica and Wilshire Boulevards.

Guests staying at the Beverly Hilton can take advantage of the hotels prestigious 90210 address -- Rodeo Drive and Century City are within walking distance of the hotel and Hollywood, downtown LA and the beach communities are only minutes away.

The hotel is less then 12 miles from the Los Angeles International Airport and within an hour of four other major airports (Burbank, Long Beach, Ontario and Orange County).

All 570 rooms including 101 suites feature state-of-the- art technology, exclusive amenities and services that cater to the needs of the discerning business traveller and tourist alike.

Amenities include custom-built work areas with ergonomic chairs, desk-top outlets and high-speed internet access by DSL line or wireless network; in-room safes with power outlets allowing guests to securely charge their electronics; two phone lines, a data port, a speaker phone and voicemail; and high-definition entertainment systems such as LodgeNet SigNetureHDTV, 42-inch HDTV plasma screens and Bose Music Systems.

The Beverly Hilton’s famous Penthouse collection offers a personal sanctuary with its elite ensemble of suites located on the premier eighth floor.

Always popular with the prominent and influential, the eighth floor has been host to every President from John F Kennedy to Bush, foreign dignitaries and Hollywood stars.

With nearly 175 red carpet events each year, including the Golden Globe Awards, Oscar Nominee Luncheon and the Milken Institute’s Global Conference the Beverly Hilton has long been the place to see and be seen.

Long time Hollywood publicist and journalist Dane Olsen recently stated in an interview, “There hasn’t been a celebrity in Hollywood for the past 50 years that hasn’t been to The Beverly Hilton at least several times... it is the gathering place of the stars”.

The Beverly Hilton offers a delectable dining experience at its two restaurants CIRCA 55 Restaurant and the Trader Vic’s Lounge.

CIRCA 1955 offers a classic California Cuisine with a 1955 inspired resort-like atmosphere. Whilst Trader Vic’s lounge is a Polynesian-themed indoor/outdoor restaurant which specializes in serving Island appetizer plates and exotic cocktails, including the original Mai Tai, the cocktail invented by Trader Vic himself in 1944.

The Beverly Hilton’s Aqua Star Spa boasts the services of “Hollywood’s fairy skin mother”, Sonya Dakara, the spa provides a fantastic opportunity for guests to relax and unwind.
The Beverly Hilton offers three award winning ballrooms, nine additional meeting rooms and an Executive Meeting Centre. The possibilities are endless for meetings, conferences and events with upscale indoor and open-air event space panning over more then 60,000 square feet.

As the world gasps at Beijing’s stunning Olympics architecture, the Chinese capital is also surprisingly emerging as a chic hospitality trendsetter on the international stage.

This chic 99 room luxury hotel is the flagship of Swire Hotels a new brand of contemporary hotels, each uniquely designed by world renowned architects and designers.

Opening soon in the vibrant ‘bohemian-chic’ Sanlitun entertainment district, it is the first hotel in the world designed by esteemed Japanese architect Kengo Kuma.

Guests are greeted by a striking emerald glass exterior, revealing minimalist interiors flooded with natural light, and bedrooms with deep oak soaking tubs.

What makes it such a ‘hot’ destination though is the underground restaurant and bar complex conceived by celebrity chef and restaurateur David Laris.

The Opposite House opens in mid August.

For further information contact Carol Kong - carol.kong@ghcasia.com

Another exciting new addition to China’s burgeoning capital is glitzy designer boutique
hotel Hotel G Beijing, inspired by 1960s retro chic and attracting a new generation of design-conscious, sophisticated young professionals, entrepreneurs, celebrities and socialites.
It is the first of an exclusive boutique hotel brand being rolled out across Asia by Hong Kong-based real estate private equity management firm Gateway Capital, renowned for the recent US$24 million restoration of the iconic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles.

Highlights include a novel rooftop restaurant Gilt with a Tibetan-style tent and open fireplace, designed by Morocco-based French Algerian designer Imaad Rahmouni, a protégé of style icon Philippe Starck.

Bar-restaurant 25 Degrees is meanwhile named after the original at the Roosevelt on Hollywood Boulevard, and fine-dining Japanese restaurant Morio meanwhile features the innovative, nouveau style of renowned chef Morio Sakayori.

For further information contact Rosetta Hon - rosetta.hon@ghcasia.com

Also in the popular Sanlitun bar area, 1949 – The Hidden City is another multi-restaurant and bar destination taking the party circuit by storm.

Nestled amongst skyscrapers amid mature trees and landscaped gardens, it is a 6,000 square metre neo-industrial ‘walled city’ of cutting-edge indoor and outdoor restaurants.

They include signature restaurant Duck De Chine and a Mediterranean taverna with DJs, as well as outdoor beer garden, event spaces and a contemporary art gallery.

The exclusive private members' Club49 is “devoted to food, fine wine and art” with only 100 memberships granted to Beijing’s elite. The complex even houses China’s first Bollinger Champagne Bar.

The former factory and research facility is the first project in Beijing by one of Asia’s leading hospitality groups, Hong Kong-headquartered Elite Concepts.

For further information contact Hanna Gold - hannah.gold@ghcasia.com

China’s ancient ‘zen bathing’ culture is being revived in ultra luxury style at GREEN T. HOUSE Living (www.green-t-house.com).

The lifestyle destination combining teahouse, fine dining, art and cultural events in Chaoyang District now incorporates a ‘Bath House’ with a giant onsen-style rooftop jacuzzi accommodating up to 25.

It also accommodates ‘high-end slumber parties’ in loft bedrooms, and a ‘Tea Reflection Room’ for traditional tea ceremonies and meditation, contemporary art space and library.

The private villa is in 15,000 square metre grounds of GREEN T. HOUSE Living, which was last year named as one of the world’s hottest new venues by Conde Nast Traveler.

The venue’s founder, the world-renowned musician, artist, tea-master and trend-setter JinR, has a vision to “present an authentic Chinese experience, but in a way that you’ve never imagined.”

For further information contact Carol Kong - carol.kong@ghcasia.com


Shanghai

If you are also visiting Shanghai make sure you check out these gems in the cosmopolitan metropolis.

JIA Shanghai is one of the city’s first true design-led boutique residence concept and is already winning awards across the world, having been voted on the “Hot List” 2008 by Condé Nast Traveller in the UK and Condé Nast Traveler in the US, the Travel + Leisure “It List” 2008, JIA Shanghai is making a distinct impression among the fashionable and style-conscious.

For further information contact Lucy Haslewood - lucy.haslewood@ghcasia.com

Shanghai’s most awe-inspiring urban renewal project to date is 1933, a former abbatoir, art deco power plant, and related factory buildings. These striking examples of early 20th century industrial architecture in historic Hongkou district will be transformed, into a creative hub focused on a cosmopolitan collection of cutting-edge design and creative offices, creative retail, restaurants, bars and clubs, artists’ guilds, galleries, learning spaces and educational institutions within a myriad of unique and stunning architectural.

For further information contact Francis Lau – francis.lau@ghcasia.com

The IVY Shanghai is a boutique hotel, with 46 rooms, including 10 suites, aimed at discerning travellers to the city. Friendly service, including 24-hour floor butlers, and a range of first class facilities for contemporary living are the hallmark of the hotel. Located in Jing’an, close to Shanghai’s business district, the chic style of The IVY offers an interesting and comfortable address in the city.

A security guard at the Beverly Hills Hilton identified Sen. John Edwards, stating that he shielded Edwards from National Enquirer reporters.

The security guard said that he encountered Edwards in the hotel's men's bathroom as he became enthralled in a battle with reporters on the other end of the door. The reporters were bombarding Edwards with questions about an affair with Rielle Hunter.

The guard identified the man as Edwards when he was shown a picture of him, according to Fox News. "What are they saying about me?" the guard said Edwards asked.

When the guard told him that the reporters were asking him about Hunter and their rumored affair and love child, "his face just went totally white," the guard said.

On Wednesday, the Enquirer reported that Edwards was seen with Hunter at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California on Monday night. According to the gossip paper, Edwards was having a rendezvous with Hunter, his rumored mistress, and their love child.

The Enquirer broke the news of Edwards' love child scandal last year while Hunter was still pregnant and Edwards was campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination. Edwards denied the affair and love child with Hunter.

LONDON — Batman bore Christian Bale is now due back in court in September after being released on bail a few days ago. Interesting fact: The suite where the alleged incident with his mother and sister took place at the Dorchester Hotel in London is now so in demand that it's booked up for the next year ... creepy.

Bale, meanwhile, was rude and dull at the London premiere of "The Dark Knight," and as far as I'm concerned, the family rift was far more exciting than anything that is in the movie. ...

MPs have cast their votes, naming a Cardiff curry house as the House of Commons’ favourite.

The Mint and Mustard restaurant on Whitchurch Road was awarded the prestigious Tiffin Cup 2008 at the House of Commons for its South Asian cuisine.

The cup, which has been running for three years, is designed to celebrate the best South Asian restaurants, while supporting charity organisations in the region.

Chef Anand George wowed celebrity chef Ainsley Harriott and MPs from around the country with his pan fried sea-bass.

After being nominated by Cardiff North MP, Julie Morgan, chef George faced a cook-off with nine other chefs at Bellamy’s Restaurant in Westminster on Wednesday.

After a tense final against stiff competition, his fish dish won the day.

Chef George said: “I’m very proud to be rewarded for all the hard work that I’ve put in. All my family and friends were celebrating that I’ve won.

“I always had a dream to do something on my own and open my own restaurant and that’s what I have done. Business is very promising at the moment.”

He honed his culinary skills at five-star hotels in India before moving to London, where he worked for Zaika, which held a Michelin star and later at La Porte Des Indes.

The inspiration for his fish dishes came from his upbringing in the city of Kochi on the south-western coast of India, the centre of the spice trade since the fourteenth century.

He said: “Where I come from the focus is on very light sauces that are not too overpowering. I have changed it slightly to make it appealing to British tastes.”

Julie Morgan said she was delighted a restaurant in her constituency had won the national competition.

She said: “This wonderful triumph is great news for Cardiff’s culinary culture and a testament to Mint and Mustard’s refreshing and innovative take on Indian cuisine. I am sure the Tiffin Cup award will make Anand’s wonderful restaurant the hottest place to eat in Cardiff!

“It’s absolutely fantastic that Anand has been given this award. The food here is beautifully cooked and very well presented.

“He certainly deserves it.”

matthew.aplin@mediawales.co.uk

I went on the honeymoon of my friend John Cleese, so it was fitting that I should be on the divorcey-moon. The honeymoon was in St Lucia; to celebrate the end of his not-so-good marriage, we decided to tour Switzerland.

Not long before, John had called me from his home in Santa Barbara, California, and said, “I think it’s going to be a very civilised divorce.”

“No way, John,” I said. “Get into the real world.”

I remembered his wife, Alyce Faye Eichelberger – whom he’d rescued from a council flat – saying to me during a previous marriage-wobble, “I’m going to take John for all I can. He won’t know what’s hit him.” He does now.

There’s no doubt that John is hurting, but has put on a witty public face. When Alyce failed to turn up to a judicial hearing, her lawyer said to the judge, “My client is undergoing a medical procedure.” John observed, “I think that means a pedicure.”

Their financial dispute will almost certainly drag on well into next year. Alyce could end up with £12m, an apartment in New York and a £2m mews house near me in Holland Park, west London. Until the divorce is settled, she’s on £900,000-a-year maintenance, plus use of a beach house in Santa Barbara and other properties. Not bad for a 15-year marriage that did not produce any children.

The only child involved in the marriage was John’s daughter Camilla – aged 8 at the start, and now 24. She’s writing a stage musical of A Fish Called Wanda with John and they have a major musical producer waiting for it.

When Alyce learnt that Camilla was to stop living with her mother in Chicago and relocate to be with John in Santa Barbara, she said to me, “I was hoping to go into the sunset alone with John.” A major problem in the marriage seemed to be Alyce’s jealousy of Camilla. It was almost as if John had to make a choice. As our mutual friend Sir Michael Caine observed, “Blood is thicker than water.”

In her divorce testimony, Alyce claimed that she was entitled to her extravagant demands because Cleese was a “world-renowned celebrity” and she was used to “being entertained by royalty and dignitaries in castles”. She also claimed John travelled on private jets.

“I take private jets,” I said to John. “I never realised you did too.”

“I took two private jets in 14 years,” he replied. He didn’t recall being entertained in a castle, either. As for the rest of Alyce’s claims, John sent the divorce papers to his Monty Python colleagues with a note saying, “Do you think this would make a TV series – Lives of the Seriously Demented?”

“Why didn’t you have a prenuptial settlement?” I asked John.

“I was naïve,” he replied. When I asked what he would do differently if he could live his life again, John responded, “I wouldn’t have married Alyce Faye Eichelberger and I wouldn’t have made Fierce Creatures [the film that followed A Fish Called Wanda].” He also said, “This divorce will cost me millions, but it’s worth it.”

I myself never married. I saw a neon alimony sign flashing above the girls’ heads. Not that of my fiancée Geraldine, of course. Above her head is only a halo. She even managed a smile when I told her, “It took me 70 years to get engaged – don’t hold your breath for the wedding.”

What do Mr C and I have in common? We both studied law at Downing College, Cambridge. We’re both mildly insane.

In spite of John’s knowledge of law he was surprised when, after years of no serious bidders, he accepted an offer for his Santa Barbara ranch and Alyce, through her lawyer, said, “We defer to your judgment.”

“What does that mean?” John asked. His lawyer explained Alyce was reserving the right to take him to court later to sue him for not getting a better price. John was outraged.

I first met John in Barbados in 1985. Before our first dinner, he shaved off his beard and moustache, leaving just enough above the lip to make him look extraordinarily like Hitler. One day, we walked barefoot in the sea, from my hotel to his. The sun was shining, birds were singing, flowers were flowering. He had a new young daughter, Camilla. Everything was rosy.

“You know, Michael, there must be more to life than this,” he said.

I told that story one day to Bjorn Ulvaeus, a member of the pop group Abba, when we were both staying at the hotel Splendido in Portofino, because he looked so gloomy. It was the only time I ever saw him laugh.

I once asked John when he realised that his marriage to his second wife, a tall Los Angeles newscaster called Barbara Trentham, was going downhill. “I bought 10 stickers reading: ‘I visited the Harrow Leisure Centre’ and stuck them all over my Bentley. Barbara peeled them off one by one. That’s when I realised the marriage was over,” he told me.

Some time later, I was walking down the road where I live, and turned left into Kensington High Street. There was my old friend John, with a woman. As I walked on with my girlfriend, I said, “That’s funny, John never introduced me to the person he was with.”

It was Alyce. She and John were on their first date, having been introduced by the society doctor John Gayner at a dinner party. He thought they’d hit it off. Don’t go into marriage brokering, Dr Gayner. It ain’t your speciality.

At John’s request, I later found him a house to rent in Barbados owned by the parents of Jemma and Jodie Kidd. For many years, he stayed there at Christmas and new year; it was also where he married Alyce one Christmas. From there, he set off for his honeymoon with Alyce, me, and my then girlfriend, the actress Jenny Seagrove.

We spent a lot of time in St Lucia with my friend Colin Tennant, aka Lord Glenconner. When I told him two days ago that John’s marriage to Alyce had collapsed, he said: “I’m not surprised. She was rather grim.”

John and I started our buddy-buddy divorcey-moon in Lugano. Our dinner at the hotel Villa Principe Leopoldo was moderate, the service odd. When I complained, John observed, “You’re a very good influence on me because you behave so badly.”

The shrimps came from South Africa – “jet-lagged shrimps,” observed John. Waiters kept trying to take our plates away before we’d finished. John said, “They’re frightened the food’s going to go bad in front of you and you’ll sue.”

I didn’t like the table position; John hated the breakfast coffee. I also objected to plastic butter containers with foil you had to peel off. “You have to remember, Michael,” John explained , “that the staff are too busy to unwrap it.”

John, a great exercise man – as opposed to me, who finds lying down tiring – said of the hotel’s gym: “It was a dump – I could show you better places in Weston-Super-Mare [John’s birthplace].”

When we came out of dinner, he got into the lift. “Your room’s on this floor,” I said. John shouted sarcastically from the lift, “I’ll see you later,” as if telling me I was wrong. “Look, John,” I yelled, “a sign here says Rooms AM. Yours is G.” “We’re becoming like Laurel and Hardy – except more abusive,” remarked John, as he exited from the lift.

The next day, John was humping suitcases into a white Range Rover. “I must have offended the porter,” he muttered. He’d texted Camilla: “I’m going to really impress you at last. The car I’ve hired is the one Paris Hilton always uses.” She texted back: “Blow it up.”

Of all the cities in the world that Brad Pitt could design a hotel for, he chose Dubai. The project ticks all the boxes that could be hoped for: celebrity angle, environmental credentials and a local developer.

And while hotels built with the backing of strong personalities or identities are nothing new in the region (lest we forget Armani and Versace, for example), the announcement of this hotel has now raised the bar in terms of achieving international recognition.

Type ‘Brad Pitt Dubai hotel' into Google and you get 73,000 hits, with the story covered by such publications as The Telegraph, LA Times and People - not to mention the enthusiastic response the story has generated in the local regional media.

Out of interest, if you type ‘Angelina Jolie Dubai hotel' into Google you get 56,800 hits, even though as far as we know she is yet to put pen to paper with her hotel plans.

But what is the attraction to consumers of staying in a hotel designed (in part at least) by a well known actor?

Organising celebrity endorsement of a hotel project is one that is yet to show a proven formula for long-term success.

While some hotels are intimately associated with celebrities in the mind of consumers - it's difficult to think of New York's Hotel Chelsea without conjuring names like Jack Kerouac, Syd Vicious, Nancy Spungen, Bob Dylan and pretty much anyone Andy Warhol was friends with - it is difficult to imagine what a Brad Pitt hotel would look like, let alone what sort of person would stay there.

At least the Armani and Versace products have an established brand identity to lure consumers, but Pitt's skills as an architect are not instantly recognisable, even though he has been involved with building projects before.

Besides, it is not immediately clear how much influence he will have, as one of a panel of consultants to the project.

The press materials announcing the project are short on concrete details - "[the hotel's] precise location in Dubai is to be confirmed in the near future" - but one would imagine that an 800-room five-star hotel "which will eventually play host to the most glamourous events and award ceremonies" would be at the higher end of the scale.

It will be interesting to watch this project unfold and guage its level of success in the minds of consumers and the wider industry alike.

If it does takes off, expect to see an Oprah Winfrey Resort, or, dare I say it, a Paris Hilton Hotel coming soon to a city near you.

Chris Jackson is the senior editor of Hotelier Middle East.

"He has superb taste in wine," Joe Flo says with a grin. My dinner mate at Blanchard's restaurant just steps from the turquoise sea is referring to Robert De Niro and his passion for a $375 bottle of 1994 Domaine Bouchard Pere & fils Grand Cru Burgundy.

As we exchange celebrity gossip, Flo, the reigning domino champ, suggests we order the oven-crisped mahi mahi with coconut, lime and ginger and a glass of a less luxurious chardonnay.

My mission is to investigate the Caribbean art of living the good life, no, make that the grand life. I am in Anguilla (rhymes with vanilla), the uber-chic sliver of sybaritic Shangri-la where a night in paradise isn't complete until the butler delivers beluga caviar and Cristal Champagne to your patio under the starry sky.

The rich and famous love Anguilla for it's Caribbean pleasures without the prying eyes.

The rich and famous love Anguilla for it's Caribbean pleasures without the prying eyes.

Unlike Cannes, where celebrities tempt the paparazzi by getting married half-naked on private yachts, or nearby St. Barts, where Arnold Schwarzenegger makes no bones about requesting a personal gym in his hotel room, Anguilla attracts a wealthy crowd that seeks Garbo-esque privacy and will pay handsomely for it.

That can mean $1,000 a night for a standard hotel room or $75,000 a week at a villa such as Exclusivity, a bluff-top mansion that was a favourite of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston (before the Brangelina era).

Denzel Washington celebrated his big 5-0 in a villa full of his closest friends, Bruce Willis and the Bacon brothers (Kevin and Michael) jam at the Pumphouse, Eddie Murphy digs the music at Johnno's, and a bikini-clad Celine Dion rides horses on the beach. The airport was expanded last year so Hollywood hot shots could arrive in private jets instead of by ferry from the nearby island of St. Maarten/St. Martin.

A few weeks ago, I decided to follow up my foray into what seemed the most foreign of “cultural” events in Rwanda — the country’s biggest beauty pageant — with something that surely must be among the most Rwandan: the opening of the Museum of Ancient Rwandan History.

The government and some private partners have restored the home of the last king of Rwanda, Mutara the III. No one seems too troubled by the irony of putting Rwanda’s Ancient History museum in a clearly colonial structure, only ever inhabited by its least ancient of indigenous rulers.

Nor do they seem to concerned with the irrationality of protocol here: You must take off your shoes to enter, either walking through in your socks (though I saw some bare feet) or slipping one of the dozen pairs of soft, brown leather sandals, all identical in size. I can only assume the shoes are to protect the carpet—a commodity which exists in no home I’ve entered in Rwanda, and which I can’t even remember seeing in any public building. But it’s the kind of carpet we use in our public schools back home, and so the ceremony of the shoes seems somehow out of proportion.

There’s not a great amount of text here—and it’s all in the museum catalog, so you could conceivably skip visiting this place entirely if you borrow the book I overpaid for—and the most interesting person to emerge from the sketch of history here is the former resident himself.

Mutara III was Rwanda’s last king, brought to power after his father, an agitated anti-colonialist, was dethroned and sent off to Congo (he died there in 1944; no word, at the museum, on how). Mutara III was seen to be rather more Belgian-friendly, and at first he was. But as plane travel expanded and the Rwandan diaspora became more independent, more vocal, and more united, Mutara began to get some rather anti-Belgian ideas. He died mysteriously in 1959–the year the Belgians handed the colony over to UN Trusteeship, in the process reversing decades of privilege granted to Tutsis and handing over political power to the Hutu. That set up a political system that would institutionalize both social and economic disenfranchisement and flat-out murder—against the once-“superior” Tutsi minority.

Mutara III’s former home tells the story of everything leading up to that point—of everything, I am tempted to say, that no one knows about Rwanda.

The museum is in Rukari, which is about 2.5 kilometers from Nyanza, a village so surprisingly big to me that I want to call it a town. (And yes, I think Kigali is a “city.”) Nyanza became the royal capital of Rwanda in 1899 , just before the German colonists showed up. (Historical footnote: Rwanda was ruled by the Germans from 1890 or so to 1919 and handed over to Belgium when the world divvied up Germany’s assets at the end of World War I.)

Ministers there called Nyanza the “cultural capital” of Rwanda and made a plea to develop the place with the same seriousness as the sites of “eco-tourism” out West, where boatloads of white people pay $500 a pop to hike through the forest and look at monkeys. (Er, silverback gorillas. You know, fancy monkeys.)

I didn’t look for a moto from Nyanza to Rukari because I wanted to soak up a totally new place while moving at the speed of human thought, but I also didn’t see that many while I walked; the parking lot of the museum was choked by Land Rovers with diplomatic plates. Point being, I’m not sure how you’re going to make a tourist mecca of a “cultural capital” that’s so difficult to get to, but maybe it’ll work out.

There’s also not all that much out here, to be honest. Granted, I didn’t see the Rwesero Arts Museum– also intended as a home for Mutara the III, whose mysterious death kept him from ever living there.

In fact, if I were the Rwandan minister of culture or of museums or what have you, that’s what I’d do: I’d sell that story. I’d start with the mysterious death of a king who had agitated the foreign rulers that would go out of their way to screw the country before they left, and I’d work backwards, historically. Sure, it means you have to make the Belgians the villain, but the Belgians are already the villains in Rwandans’ collective memory, a role the official narratives here reinforce with vigor. So why not use it on the tourists, too?

After all, everyone knows the white Western world likes nothing more than a good mea culpa. O, the market in historical schadenfreude is vast and unexplored!