Writing and Reporting
Water in the Congo from Gerry Hadden on Vimeo.
Spain’s Answer to Sleepiness: Be Like the Brits
It’s an odd thing to say. Spaniards don’t begrudge the Brits much of anything. Not their rainy weather, not their soggy food. But suddenly it seems the UK has one thing Iberians need: an extra hour, each day, for resting.
We All just Took One in the Kisser
In an article on theatlantic.com reporter Bruce Schneier suggests that the detention of Guardian reporter Glen Greenwald’s partner, David Miranda, at Heathrow Airport earlier this month may have been nothing more -or less – than an attempt to intimidate: two of the most powerful countries in the world saying, basically, Mess with us and we’ll go after your family.
Coffins for the Living and the Dead
Waitress at a restaurant in As Neves, Galicia, Spain: “What brings you to town.”
Me: “I’m a journalist. I’m doing something on the people riding around in coffins, up in Santa Marta. The procession.”
“Yeah,” she says, “this year is pretty intense. With the train accident.”
Galicia’s Train Wreck Ripples through Distant Villages
My trip to Galicia was planned weeks ago. Before the train derailed. Before the grief. I came to cover other stuff. But even though I’m now in a village about as far from Santiago de Compostela as you can get, the grief is here. It’s hit the entire region hard. At precisely 190 kilometers per hour.
Two Wrecks, Two Reactions
Last night a high-speed Spanish train derailed near Santiago de Compostela, killing and injuring dozens of passengers. Days earlier, outside Paris, a train skipped its tracks, leaving six dead. There are a lot of differences between the two accidents, including what caused them, but what stands out is how distinctly bystanders reacted.
Slum Baby Two: The Presentations
Exhausted new mother Mita Banarje set an informal tone this morning when she emerged from beneath her husband Akash’s rickshaw, sporting a ragged cotton sari and clumps of mud.
Slum Baby Born to Huge Indifference Across Globe
In what may be the least awaited birth of the year, Mita Banarje, shoelace peddler, gave birth last night to a baby girl beneath a rickshaw in the rain outside Dhaka, Bangladesh. Her husband, Akash, slept.
Dinner With the Folks Who Made Chavez Possible
“We created Chavez,” my host said, passing the foie gras. “We spent the last half a century building bigger walls around our properties rather than trying to improve our country. He is entirely of our making.” Ironically, Chavez used to say the exact same thing…
Read on at PRI’s The World.
Fidel Castro: Immortal Until Proven Otherwise
This is an old joke among Cuban exiles in Miami. And it rings true, once again, now that rumors of Castro’s imminent death have been disproven by the retired revolutionary’s appearance on television this week. Some would say Castro’s got nine lives. I’d say he’s got many more…
Read on at PRI’s The World.
What a Corpse is Worth and Why
Many people were surprised this week by some news out of Mexico. Not only did authorities shoot dead one of the country’s most notorious drug bosses, Heriberto Lazcano, capo of the Zetas cartel. Afterwards, Lazcano managed to escape. That’s right. He escaped, dead…
Read on at PRI’s The World.
A Crime Against Mexico
Last week the Mexican government publicly apologized for not preventing the 2001 murders of three women in Ciudad Juárez, and for botching the subsequent investigations…
Read on at the International Herald Tribune
In Mexico and Spain, Going Native
Last week a Mexican congressman from the southern state of Guerrero was found murdered, his body dumped in a river. The story has been front-page news across Mexico, and made many headlines elsewhere. It’s a tragedy and, still, a mystery…
Read on at Reuters.com
The (Lost) Century of the Americas
(CNN) – I was far away from my native New York when the planes struck on September 11,10 years ago. But I had front-row seats to how those attacks derailed relations between the United States and Latin America….
Read on at Cnn.com
The Ache of Book Abandonment
When I was just out of college, I worked for three years in book publishing, in New York City….
Read on, at Huffington Post
