The Sahara was as empty of life as a landscape from Mars.  But every now and then I would see a black splotch on the sand.  Sometimes there would be buildings and roads nearby.  These must be oil fields.  It made me wonder how much oil Libya holds which has yet to be exploited by our ravenous oil companies.  Further south the emptiness was startlingly interrupted by an array of twelve vast, green circles on the sands.  This must be an aquifer irrigating the precious crops.  How incredible that crops could grow in such an arid waste, so far from anywhere we would recognise as fertile.  Beyond that I saw nothing more to mark the presence of man for a very long time.

Hours of empty waste rolled below me.  Every once in a while a towering black cone would appear on the sands, marking a time of fire and smoke in the Earth's younger days.

The emptiness and arid expanse of north Africa made me appreciate how blessed Europe and North America are, and why they are crowded and will grow more crowded still.  If I were born to the wastes of Africa, I would risk all to start life anew in Europe.  Britain has had record levels of immigration in the past decade - and many more have entered illegally because there is no challenge or stigma, no identification cards, no shortage of work for the willing, no hostility or social abuse, no effective restriction on entitlement to healthcare and education, and a large cash economy.  I am an immigrant.  My husband is an immigrant.  Many of my friends are immigrants, and it is really true.  Immigrants may not be universally welcomed, but they are not despised.  Britons value tolerance more than they value native superiority.

The last time I visited South Africa I was taken to dinner by a white Boer whose family had lived there for more generations than mine has been in America.  On the night that rule passed to the black majority government of Nelson Mandela they barricaded themselves inside their home with every firearm loaded and ready and waited.  Nothing happened.  The next night nothing happened again.  Eventually he went back to work, the kids went back to school, and the country went on to achieve what many of either race would have believed impossible - peaceful co-existence with progressive reform toward a more just society.  

There were about 40 bankers in my workshop that visit.  About two-thirds were black, including 5 from Zimbabwe.  In the conference room they ranged before me in no particular order, well mixed in every row on all sides.  At my high school in Muskegon, Michigan, blacks sat with blacks and whites sat with whites in class and in the cafeteria.  How would they sit at lunch here?  They came off the line of the hotel buffet and sat side by side filling tables in the order they had lined up.  They mixed completely and without any of the tension I had expected.  The same was true in the hotel bar in the evening.  Everyone talked to everyone else near them, with interest and respect.  There were no looks of hostility, suspicion, wariness, condescension or superiority.  I was humbled.  Again, tolerance was more important than racial superiority as a cultural value.

Sure South Africa has its problems.  Lots of them.  So does Britain.  Terrible crime rates are a problem for both states.  But the people value achievement, practice tolerance, and are willing to respect anyone determined to work hard and prosper.  

Clouds suddenly occluded the ground below.  We had passed the border and the clouds hid the plains of Chad.  When the clouds cleared the plains below were emptier, bleaker, more bleached and less inhabitable than even the Libyan Sahara.  Next door is the Sudan, with its strife and starvation around Darfur.  Bad government, selfish elites and inter-tribal hatred causes more death, harm, misery and poverty than any foreign threat.  Thinking of New Orleans it struck me as being as true in the USA as in the Sudan.  And true in Iraq too.  And in each country the elites call on their adherents to attack foreigners, other tribes, other faiths to distract them from the misery they themselves inflict with their corruption and self-dealing.

Just then a Swissair stewardess offered me chocolate from a tray heaped with foil wrapped treats.  I remembered the skeletal frames of starving children in Darfur and counted this small blessing as another reason to be thankful for my comfortable life.

You might think a culture of tolerance cannot be schooled.  You would be wrong.  My husband is Malaysian Chinese.  His parents, like most Chinese, are racist - even tribalist - preferring their children to marry Chinese - preferably Hokkien - and regarding all others as inferior.  I knew this and refused to meet them until we were engaged.  Confronted with a prospective daughter-in-law I hoped they would be more conciliatory.  I have never known anything but politeness and kindness from them, even after the marriage broke up.  We started out determined to be tolerant, gained respect, and enjoy affection.

And the same is true of Malaysia as a whole.  When I first visited Malaysia there were only 5 "mixed" restaurants in the country - meaning only 5 restaurants where Muslim Bumiputras and Chinese could eat together.  The state had founded the restaurants as part of a policy of encouraging racial tolerance.  People still recounted events of the last race riots, when Chinese were attacked and killed in their businesses and homes.  One woman told me that as a little girl she was passed balcony to balcony along the front of a high rise apartment tower to get her to safety during the riots.  Inter-marriage was unthinkable on both sides.  Last time I returned mixed restaurants weren't any big deal, and I even saw mixed couples, mixed groups of children and mixed social scenes in the Starbucks.  The rest of the world - at least in pockets - is learning tolerance and respect and moving forward from ancient hostilities and suspicion.

The same was true in Dubai last year.  85 percent of Dubai's residents are immigrants and yet there is virtually no racial, religious or ethnic tension in day to day lives.  I wouldn't say that there is equality, but there is a definite policy of tolerance and an expectation that everyone owes it to others to try to get along.

What about America?  When will race and religion cease to matter there?  Which party will provide the leadership to say that tolerance is expected - even required - in the interactions of people in their daily lives?  When will social cohesion be embraced as a social good?  Which party will say that ensuring equal access to healthcare, education and equitable working conditions are in the interests of all Americans?  

Hills varied the bleakness below, seemingly dotted with brush.  The airmap indicated we had entered the sub-Saharan Central African Republic, next would come the Democratic Republic of Congo spanning the equator, then Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and finally South Africa.  The desert below was subtly greening.

The ideals of America had shaped this part of the world, with aspirations to democratic self-rule, racial equality, constitutional government and prosperity for all.  Realisation of those aspirations has fallen short here as at home.  Elites were too powerful, too selfish, too determined to preserve their primacy to cede real self-rule, real equality before the law, real constitutional protections and shared prosperity.  Peoples were too easily divided by race, tribe, religion and origin, too willing to cast blame rather than seek cooperation.

As we near the equator, the stewardess offers me strawberry ice cream.  Again I count my blessings and say a silent prayer of thanks as I  look out over a desert giving way to lush wooded hills.

In South Africa I will find aspiration, I will find tolerance, I will find social cohesion - imperfect, halting, but tangible.  When I return to Britain I will find these graces widespread there as well.  And perhaps some day I will find them in America too.

Which American leader will call for an end to the recriminations and accusations between races, religions and ethnicities and demand reconciliation, tolerance and a shared responsibility for crafting a better society going forward?  Who will preach a new covenant of cooperation for the future?  Who will be our Nelson Mandela?

Dinner was served as we followed the Zambezi River through the hills of Botswana, where cattle are still the principle form of wealth but Mercedes are making steady inroads.  Occasional fires sent plumes of smoke up through the clear air.  Looking over the vastness of this largely undeveloped land, it seemed impossible to me that we could be short of mineral resources anytime soon (except oil, of course).  By the time I had finished my coffee we were above cultivated lands and the size of settlements had increased from a handful of houses to small towns.

The sun was setting as we began our descent toward Johannesburg, a city much grander, larger and more modern than dowdy little Zurich.  Lights were on in the streets and the houses below, illuminating the wide metropolitan sprawl as far as the eye could see - the orange of the glowing streetlamps competing with the orange sunset.  

The customs and immigration agents were black, my taxi driver was white.  My driver was from Zimbabwe, fleeing four years ago from the violence against whites spurred by Mugabe to distract the poor blacks from embezzlement of Zimbabwe's vast mineral wealth.  Given his background my driver was surprisingly liberal, saying, "I don't care if politicians are white, black or Chinese so long as they get things done and there's rule of law."  Like all South Africans I had met he was optimistic about the future and grateful for the restraint and practicality of the government, although realistic about the challenges of crime and development.  Crawling along in a traffic jam we saw a police car chase and catch a truck which had sped by on the verge.  "That's what I like to see!  My taxes at work!"

The taxi slowly wended its way along the packed freeway.  I noted that there were new housing estates of neat little houses stretching away over the plains on all sides.  My driver explained that the tin shantytowns were giving way to the new state housing.  Poor slum dwellers were required to come up with a bond to ensure their obligations for electricity and water, but then were given the trim little houses on proper streets with plumbing, electric and streetlights.  We agreed that the policy was wise as something given for free is rarely valued, and certainly these new homesteaders seemed to take great care of their properties.

Now I am in my hotel.  It is much grander than the airport hotel in Zurich.  My driver said that Michael Jackson wanted to buy it on one of his visits.  The staff are all black, all professional, all friendly.  The view from my room is over beautiful plains lit in all directions.  Or is it just that my perspective has changed?

Corrupt elites divide and impoverish.  Enlightened elites unite and empower.  Americans could learn a lot from Africa.