Courtesy 2008 Australian Human Rights Commission Photo Competition, Belinda Mason, Winner
Courtesy 2008 Australian Human Rights Commission Photo Competition, Belinda Mason, Winner
By Rikimedia (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

One Year After Pakistan

BOGOTÁ, Colombia—Two years ago yesterday, I was awakened in Islamabad by an editor in Singapore calling me at 6 a.m. to tell me President Obama was going to make an …

Chris Hondros, Marla Ruzicka and me in Baghdad in 2004. Marla died April 16, 2005 in a car bomb in Baghdad and Chris was killed in Libya on April 20, 2011.

Losing Marla: Eight Years Later

Eight years ago today, the world lost a humane and human voice for those who often have none—the civilian victims of conflicts. Marla Ruzicka, my friend, was killed in a …

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The Road Goes Ever On and On

I spent almost a month in New Zealand and realized, gosh, I hadn’t written much at all about this wonderful, magical place. Well, now that I’m back on dry land …

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“World Famous in New Zealand!”

AUCKLAND—In a short while I’ll be casting off aboard the Bahia Blanca cargo ship en route to Manzanillo in Colon, Panama. I rather late in the game realized I hadn’t …

Triumph?

Ten Years After…

Ten years ago today, the United States began perhaps its costliest and most destructive foreign policy blunder. And as for many young journalists, it also allowed me to jump-start my …

Media appearances I

Hi, all. I gave a talk yesterday at the University of Otago on journalism and the war on terror. The Otago Daily Times was kind enough to send a reporter …

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Farewell, Australia

Part I There’s an old adage that one should write drunk and edit sober. This is my attempt at slightly tipsy. Why? Because I’m saying farewell to Australia, and there’s …

Courtesy 2008 Australian Human Rights Commission Photo Competition, Belinda Mason, Winner

Australia’s Forgotten People

Aborigines just aren’t visible in the larger population. From Perth to Melbourne, including in Adelaide, I rarely saw an Aborigine. And when I did, they were like the poor woman I saw today, sitting around on the margins, singly or in small groups. White Australians seemed to scarcely notice them. Even worse, in Coober Pedy, I was warned of an Aboriginal “gang” roaming the streets at night, as if they were wild dogs. I’ve never seen an Aborigine working in Australia, either as a cop, a waitress… as anyone

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From Here, North

The numbing flatness of southern Australia and its Eyre Peninsula is beginning to get to me, not to mention the endless driving and huge distance between, well, everything. I find …

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A Landscape of Sensual and Terrible Beauty

EUCLA, Western Australia—I realize that in all of this, I haven’t really given my impressions of Australia, particularly its wild and woolly western half. In short, it’s tremendous and awesome. …