My Mercedes Is Not for Sale My Mercedes Is Not for Sale My Mercedes Is Not for Sale

""Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?""-Janis Joplin A journalist's intrepid endeavor to sell hisused car abroad results in a high-spirited and revealing look at West Africa. ""Look, there's my car," I say, pointing at my Mercedes in the parking lot."Where?" a fellow desert traveler asks."There, that Mercedes," I say.He looks at me, questioning. "You want to drive that through theSahara?"" Jeroen van Bergeijk came up with what seemed like a great scheme for making a quick profit: buy a clunker of a car in his native Amsterdam and resell it in theThird World, where a market even for jalopies still thrives. His chariot of choice is a rusted-out 1988 Mercedes 190D with 220,000 kilometers on its odometer; his route will take him from Holland through Morocco, acrossthe Sahara, and into some of the least trodden parts of Africa. "My Mercedes Is Not for Sale "is a rollicking tale of an innocent abroad. The author finds himself facing a driving challenge akinto the Dakar Rally but encounters obstacles never dreamed of by race-car drivers: active minefields, occasional banditry-mostly by the border guards--and a teenage, chain-smoking desert guide with afondness for Tupac lyrics. Food and water are scarce, sandstorms are frequent, and all he has to patch up his many car breakdowns thousands of miles from civilization is a bar of soap, some duct tape, and a pair ofwomen's nylons. Then there's the coup he survived. "My Mercedes Is Not for Sale" captures more than the adventure-it vividly portrays the impact of globalization onAfrica through a surprise-filled journey into its thriving car culture, while asking the question: is the white man's burden really a used car?