Madagascar, But

Hot off the Kwaku Network, a series of romantic slides of various African scenery. This one is of Madagascar. After having watched a season of Man vs Wild, I've been thinking about the Walt Whitmanization of the planet. Why do we think this picture is beautiful? There's nothing there to eat. You cannot sustain any decent sized population under those mountains. My guess is that it would take just as much imported technology and capital to mow down those foothills and fertilize and irrigate farmland as it would to drop a Mickey D's in the same spot. Civilization is where you put it. Ponder a moment about a suitable backstory on the slim European woman who shot this photograph.