Read the following passage and answer the question. 'The new governor arrived in the state capital with promises stacked higher than the minaret of the central mosque. Within six months, the promises had dissolved like salt in the rainy season — quietly, completely, leaving no trace. The people, who had danced at his inauguration, now sat in the same darkness they had always known, waiting for the next messiah.' The tone of the writer in this passage can best be described as