Riffling through the more obscure reportages in the latest issue of The Economist, I came across one datelined Laayoune, capital of the disputed territory of Western Sahara. I realized that I'd last heard of it as El Aiun, "The Spring," hopefully so named by the Spanish-controlled Berbers who founded it in 1928, long before the Polisario uprising of the 1960s that led to independence being declared from Spain for Western Sahara (Sahrawia) and the whole process brought to a sudden halt in 1975 by Morocco, the major power of the Maghreb, which moved in and occupied the territory.

Anyway, I can think of few places as far from the madding crowd. Whether a stay there might make one yearn for the madding c., I can't say, but I suspect so. Although one could while away the sultry hours watching TV, judging by the profusion of satellite dishes.