May 15th 2000 would be twelve years since Richard and his colleagues set out on a journey to the West by land after several Visa denials. The reality of the often-painted easy and glorious illegal journey to the West began to set in when Richard, forcefully separated from his colleagues, failed in many attempts to enter the Spanish island Tangier through Nouadhibou in Mauritania. His zeal to succeed and the shame of going back to his homeland unachieved, prompted a final but disastrous move to enter Italy by travelling to Libya through the Sahara Desert. In this scintillating adventurous non-fiction thriller, Christopher Ihebereme's Price of The West; Tears from the Desert tells a story about the exodus of young adults from their native lands in search of greener pastures in the West. It portrays the dangers of the ultimate goal to satisfy societal and peer pressure to excel. Price of the West: Tears from the Desert exposes the ills of corrupt government and the pains of modern day slavery defined in human trafficking; child abduction; economic and sex slavery. As death tolls mounted, Richard and his living colleagues stranded over forty days in the desert tried to survive on the remains of their fallen members and the urine from their female counterparts. Amidst the charred and dejected bones of his dead colleagues, lonely, scared and weakened Richard wished the world could break their silence and stop this modern day slavery and illegal exodus, the greatest human and generational failure of the 21st century. His peeled body was full of sores and extruding watery blood and pus as he led on the hot desert sand unsure of his final fate. Did he make it alive to the West or did he suffer the gruesome fate of his fallen colleagues?
About the Author: Christopher Okwuchi Ihebereme (Engr.) was born during the Nigeria -Biafra civil war to Mr. and Mrs. Robert Ihebereme Odoemena. His educational pomposities led to the experience and interests that have greatly influenced his works and writings. Christopher studied Philosophy, Theology, and Civil Engineering at undergraduate levels. At graduate and Doctorate levels, he studied Computer Science and Engineering, Business Management and Environmental Management. His security induced exile from Nigeria during the military regimes of the early and mid-nineties saw him traveling in predominantly Islamic nations where he bore the banner of Christ, helping stranded foreigners to find their footing against hunger, destitution, and corrupt police and government leaders in the nations he visited. Due to his writings and actions against these leaders and their political puppets, Christopher suffered incessant arrests, that led him to seek refuge in the land of the brave and the home of the free, the United States of America where he continued his post graduate studies and sojourns. He has many other works influenced by his presence in a nation where you just need to dream and believe in your dreams, and you will be just fine.