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General on a Tightrope

With his country’s domestic and foreign policies largely buried in the wreckage of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, General Pervez Musharraf, the military ruler of Pakistan, faced a stark choice: to align his country solidly behind the United States’ war against

Mary Anne Weaver August 31, 2002

Haitians in New York

Brooklyn, NY — It was one of those New York City summer days when the heat bounced back and forth between buildings and the asphalt seemed to sweat. The temperature alone was cause for irritation. The police department’s timing could not have been

Marjorie Valbrun August 30, 2002
Oil workers putting a tap.

A Letter from Baku: The Story Behind the Oil

The first oil rush has attracted gangsters, spies and multinationals to frontier city Baku, Azerbaijan. At any hour in Baku you’re likely to run into Turkish “gangsters,” Chechen revolutionaries, Russian spies and oil men of every stripe, looking to make money any way

Stanley Greene August 30, 2002
Beauty and her customer Naren in the brothel. Beauty is from Bangladesh and without papers she sleeps her way across the border in order to go home to visit her five-year old son. She is very popular with the customers. She says of them, "By acting like I'm in love, I get them under my control, so that they keep coming back. This is my way of earning money. I never truly love anyone." 2001 © Zana BRISKI

Beauty and the Brothel: Prostitutes and AIDS in India

Beauty and her customer Naren in the brothel. Beauty is from Bangladesh and without papers she sleeps her way across the border in order to go home to visit her five-year old son. She is very popular with the customers. She says of

Zana Briski August 29, 2002

The Life and Legacy of Paul de Kruif

It was the first day of the 2001 Key West Literary Seminar — an annual event that attracts hundreds of readers and writers to the southernmost town in the United States — and one of the panelists was observing that the whole enterprise

Robin Marantz Henig August 29, 2002

An Amazon Preserve

What immediately strikes a newcomer upon entering the forest is how noisy it is, and how dark, beneath the canopy. Late last summer, I found myself standing in a preserve, a few hours drive from Manaus, Brazil in “continuous forest” which stretches for

Doug Foster August 28, 2002
A destroyed Iraqi tank rests near a series of oil well fires during the Gulf War on March 9, 1991 in northern Kuwait. Hundreds of fires burned out of control, casting a pall of toxic smoke over the Emirate and raising health and environmental concerns. (AP Photo/David Longstreath)

What Bodies?

Leon Daniel, as did others who reported from Vietnam during the 1960s, knew about war and death. So he was puzzled by the lack of corpses at the tip of the Neutral Zone between Saudi Arabia and Iraq on Feb. 25, 1991. Clearly

Pat Sloyan August 27, 2002

Belly of the Beast

On a broad and shallow lake situated in the middle of a vast oil field north of the city of Surgut in northwestern Siberia, a Khanty (han-tee) fisherman poles his battered metal boat — an old Russian motorboat sans the motor — across

Scott Warren August 8, 2002
"As the sun was setting it was fucking eerie, very unnerving, nothing has changed. The neighborhood’s still the same."

The Dailiness of Life: One Man’s Struggle With Mental Illness

“As the sun was setting it was fucking eerie, very unnerving, nothing has changed. The neighborhood’s still the same.” Eighteen years ago, I began shooting a 20-year documentary about my Uncle Charlie and the rest of my Brooklyn family. This no-holds-barred photographic epic

Marc Asnin June 2, 2002

A Son Confronts Oil Poverty in the Niger Delta

“As much money as they take out of here, this place should look like New York,” Ken Wiwa says, gesturing at the passing landscape as his car, chauffeured by his father’s driver, Sonny, speeds southeast from Port Harcourt towards Ogoniland along the area’s

Phillippe Wamba March 3, 2002

The Future of Bonobos: An Animal Akin to Ourselves

Human tragedies often reverberate in unexpected ways, threatening environmental destruction and endangering other species. Consider the unfolding tragedy of the Congo, where continued fighting has caused the deaths of more than 1.7 million people in the past two years. Caught in the merciless

Doug Foster January 9, 2002

When the Sea Calls

Douglas Goodale, by the age of 32, had eight years of commercial fishing experience behind him when his job literally took his right arm and very nearly his life. Goodale was working by himself on his 22-foot purple lobster boat, “Barney,” about one

Earl Dotter January 9, 2002
Architects’ concept sketch of the Freedom Center entrance at night.

A Museum In Black and White

In the mythology of the Underground Railroad, the Ohio River has a sacramental status. Crossing it transformed slaves into free men and women. The alchemy was imperfect, to be sure: Under federal law, slaves in the North remained property and could be recaptured.

Julia Klein January 9, 2002
British soldiers give a hand in rescue operations at the site of the bomb-wrecked U.S. Marine command center near Beirut airport on October 23, 1983. A bomb-laden truck drove into the center collapsing the entire four story building.

Look Over Here

Few American presidents projected the image of Commander-In-Chief more than Ronald Reagan. He snapped salutes at Marine honor guards around the White House with the skill of a Washington, Grant or Eisenhower. While those presidents learned on the battlefield, Reagan was trained by

Pat Sloyan January 8, 2002

Convicting the Wrong Man: Part One of Two

Maybe a detective lied on the witness stand. Or a prosecutor played games with the evidence. A snitch could have testified falsely after getting a sweet deal on his own case. Maybe a defense lawyer was incompetent. He even could have been napping

Gary Delsohn January 8, 2002

Fighting Battles for Grizzlies

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK–For 20 seasons, the simple life was its own reward for Bob Jackson, the only resident law enforcement officer in the most remote wilderness outpost of the lower 48 states–this park’s Thorofare district. Ranger Bob Jackson, who patrols on horseback, says

Frank Clifford January 8, 2002

A Land of Madrassahs

The Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on America has focused world attention on Peshawar, from where U.S. military strikes could still come. Peshawar — only thirteen miles southeast of the Khyber Pass, with Afghanistan beyond — is a rugged, lawless place, riven by

Mary Anne Weaver January 7, 2002
Approaching the community of Styrn, Norway.

Secrets of Aging Well in Norway

Cruising the Norwegian coastline in September is a way of buying time, of getting my emotional and geographic bearings before reentering Shangri-la. That’s how I remember Stryn, the pastoral idyll deep within the shrouded glacial mists of the Nordfjord, Norway, discovered via seaplane,

Nada Skerly December 30, 2001