text: Djibouti, also known ironically to me as 'La station balneaire de la mer Rouge', is having an election today in which there is only one candidate, the current president, President Ismail Omar Guelleh. The result is probably not in doubt, even if the police had to disperse opposition protests with tear gas.
  During my youth, in the mid-1970s, I spent two interesting years living in Djibouti. It is probably not most people's idea of a paradise on earth, although the Office National du Tourisme de Djibouti has a game try. It continues to be a major overseas base for the French military and in more recent years has become home to the only US base in Africa as well.