In mapping out the chapter sections for my forthcoming book, The Disaster Tourist: How Journalists and Relief Workers Survive in War Zones and Disaster Areas, While Still Being Able to Find Beer, I see that these broad chapter outlines are useful as blog entries in their own right. For anyone whoever wanted to grow… Continue
Adventures in War Zones and Disaster Areas for Journalists and Relief Workers
If the Bullets Don’t Get You, the Filthy Air of Kabul Will
There was an article in the paper this morning about air quality in Kabul, or more to the point, the lack of quality. According to scientific studies, government officials, and United Nations experts the air is so foul that more people die from respiratory illnesses than from the on-going war with Taliban and insurgents. And… Continue
Top Techniques for Writing – Part One
There are some pretty specific techniques and practices you can pick up from the world of serious journalism, in particular, newspaper, magazine, and broadcast journalism, that will elevate your analytic and writing skills far above the average. They will work for any kind of writing you do, be it Fiction, Journalism, Non-Fiction, Plays, Daily Journals,… Continue
A Memo From Camp Warehouse Kabul About Security Clearances
In the early days of the Afghan Occupation Today I sat on the banks of the many years dry Kabul River and wept sad tears, not because of what has been happening, but because I do not have the necessary talent of an Evelyn Waugh or a Joseph to tell this comic farce. Ever… Continue
Reporting in the High Arctic
Here’s a snippet of what I might slip into the book The Disaster Tourist I outlined the book in the post right before this one. “I should take some lead pencils with you. Bloody cold where you’re going and pens freeze don’t you know.” Parting advice from my Managing Editor in CBC Radio News… Continue
The Disaster Tourist – A Soon To Be Published Book
While I continue to work on my Adventure Thrillers such as Cobra Flight, I am also developing some Non-Fiction projects. In active development now is a quirky, irreverent, and most likely scandalous look at how relief workers and journalists conduct themselves in war zones and humanitarian disaster areas. It also turns a jaundiced and withering… Continue
Tips and Tricks for Visiting Ireland
I know that it seems odd to see a post about visiting Ireland, a country far in time from any form of war or humanitarian disaster. But, for one reason or another I’ve been asked recently by what seems to be an unusual number of people for tips on visiting the Republic. So, in an… Continue
The Day I Photographed Yousuf Karsh
I was recently asked about the day that I photographed one of the 20th century’s preeminent portrait photographers. Yousuf Karsh burst into global celebrity when in 1941 he took this photograph of then British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. For the next several decades the world’s mighty and famous clamoured for his talents. His waiting list… Continue
The 20 Most Needed Foreign Words in a War Zone
What Words Do You Need in a War Zone or Humanitarian Disaster Area? One thing you should have done on the plane ride into your latest hell-hole of a disaster area or war zone is learn the handful of words in the local language that may save your life. You only need a handful. You… Continue
Your First Day in a War Zone or Disaster Area
What to Do When You Step Off the Plane You would think that getting into a war zone or disaster area is the hardest part of your assignment, but really it is quite easy compared to what you face during the first day on the ground. Just getting from the airport can be a cocktail… Continue