I’m often asked if I worry about getting shot when working in some of the places I go to. Not really. I mean, it is something I am always aware of and something I try to be prepared for, but the possibility of getting shot is not nearly the nightmare that people assume it is.… Continue
Adventures in War Zones and Disaster Areas for Journalists and Relief Workers
Category Archives: War Zone
Water is Life — and Quick Profit
Travelers, even the type that heads for a cosseted resort in a first world country, know to be careful about the local water. But what do you do when you are in a country where there is no safe water? Buy bottled water you’d say. Most of the time that would be a good idea,… Continue
Foreign Journalists as Liars and Fools
I’ve been watching the television coverage of the latest war this week. (It doesn’t matter which, they are all the same.) No matter which network I watch, with the exception of Al Jazeera or the BBC, the major world networks seem to be driving their correspondents to ever lower forms of journalism in the… Continue
Amid the Ruins — A Poor Kind of Journalism
An odd thing is happening to journalism amid the chaos of humanitarian disasters these days. It’s becoming as managed, influenced, nuanced and manipulated as the worst of government spin controlled journalism. Over the past years I’ve experienced at first hand a most remarkable change in how the media works in humanitarian disasters such as Albania,… Continue
Torturers I Have Met
A few years ago I was splitting a bottle of Dewar’s Scotch with one of the most senior drug control police officers in the Afghan government, (drinking is an activity more common than you would think in that Islamic nation) when the conversation turned to torture. There had just been a sensational case involving the… Continue
At Night Through Armed Checkpoints
“You no speak okay?” I nodded my head and slouched lower in our wreck of a Toyota Corolla shuddering up to the checkpoint. Snow sleeted down the mountain slope to lash through the yellow of the headlights. “Say nothing okay. Nothing.” I’d already had a lot of practice at this already, about a dozen times… Continue