CHAPTER 4
Taking a Gamble
On Monday, January 18, 2016, at around 7 p.m., smoke was seen coming out of Barry Gu’s clothing factory in Lesotho. A friend of Barry’s spotted it, snapped a picture with his cell phone, and sent it to Barry over WeChat, the Chinese equivalent of Facebook.
Barry rushed to the scene and called the fire department, but he knew he shouldn’t be overly optimistic. There was only one fire truck in the entire country, and it normally sat at the airport, where just six flights arrived or departed each day. The last flight had left three hours earlier, and most likely no one was at the airport.
At around 9 p.m., Lesotho’s minister of trade and investment, Joshua Setipa, came to the scene. He had received a message about the ...
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