Is thinking about writing a travel book with a heart and a brain. Instead of simply talking about ice cream cone mountain peaks, the world’s undiscovered eigth wonder and other cliches, how about a common sense, untrained-economist’s perspective on developing and developed countires? Instead of GDP, inflation and literacy levels I’ll come up with my own measures. Here are some of the chapter headings:

The Taxi Cab Index: Just how bad is the driving, how unbearable is the smell, how variable is the pricing, and what is the likelihood of reaching your destination?

The National Airline Index: Do they have a national airline? Have they heard of Boeing? Does the aeroplane look like it was used decades ago by the military, perhaps as part of the independence effort?

Still working on the others.