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Cold War Resartus
Whether or not the endless winter of menace known as the Cold War is actually over, it already seems bracketed in history. At the beginning was competition between Washington and Moscow for politico-economic control of a destitute Europe, lethalized by the spread of
Gypsy Liberation In Hungary
Text and Photos by Victoria Pope MISKOLC, Hungary–On streets without names, collapsed sheds circle the slag-heaps of the metal factory. Pigeons coo among the refuse. When dawn breaks, the wake-up sounds of coughing and coal-shoveling echo through the treeless hinterland. The gypsy community
A Contra Rampage–With Blessings from the United States
The October 1983 attack by U.S.-financed contra rebels on the northern Nicaraguan town of Pantasma was, militarily, a brilliant surprise strike, a classic town takeover, one of the few that the rebel forces ever achieved. It was also one of the single most
“A Flood From Below”: The Downfall of Irrigation
SHEPPARTON, Victoria, Australia–When spring came to the Riverine Plain of northern Victoria in September 1989, Peter Avram’s peach orchard slowly awakened and burst into leaf, just as it always had before. Peter Avram, a peach grower in Victoria, examines trees killed by rising
Coca, Campesinos, and a Controversial General
Until recently, Tarapoto was a sleepy agricultural town located deep in Peru’s tropical midlands. The lush fields surrounding the town were worked by industrious small farmers cultivating rice, corn, and other staples. Nighttime entertainment consisted mostly of casual strolls around the central plaza.
The Alarming Increase in Alcohol-Damaged Children
Malvina is a million dollar baby. Malvina has fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). Her mother, a young Indian woman from Alaska who drank heavily while angrily denying her pregnancy, sought medical assistance only after the first labor pains signaled Malvina’s imminent arrival. During her
Little Food, Bad Water: The Tatters of Poland’s Rural Life
Text and Photos by Victoria Pope BOJARY, Poland–in this cluster of small villages near Bialystok, Poland, there is a funeral every month and a wedding every two years. The planting cycle, like the life cycle, is out of kilter. Though it’s harvest time,
The Contras Murdering Their Own: A Grisly Retribution
In 1983, leaders of the CIA-financed Nicaraguan contra army ordered the detention of four field officers accused of insubordination, graft and murder. Argentine and Honduran military officers interrogated the detained, and then the rebel general staff ordered them executed. With dozens of rebel
Death Traps
Gary Zahm remembers it as just a feeling, a vague impression that something was wrong at the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge, which he had just been put in charge of. Mostly, it was the smell. “I’ve worked in alkaline marshes all my career,”
From the Cold War to the Drug War
As Moscow’s satellites spin wildly out of control, all the world’s eyes are focused on Checkpoint Charlie, Wenceslas Square, and Europe’s leap into the post-Yalta future. But what about the rest of the world? If the Cold War is ending in Europe, can
Crime and Impunity in Chile: Perverting the Law of a Legalistic Land
Item: A teacher is kidnapped by the secret police, and his family files a petition for judicial protection, which is rejected after the government asserts the man is not in custody. Several months later, he is found in a prison camp, recovering from
Beating Alcohol Through Tribal Self-Help
A giant of an Indian knocked at a door in Custer, Montana on a sultry afternoon in the late 1940s. The big man wore three braids under a flat-brimmed, dome-crowned hat. He asked for my father and Dad joined him on the front
David Halberstam: The Making of a Critic
When David Halberstam arrived in Saigon in early September, 1962, his new dateline remained distant and obscure to his readers and even his editors. It would be several months before he would move back onto the front page with the regularity he had
Growing Up: Solidarity’s Turbulent Times
May 15-20, 1989: A week of highs and lows for Lech Walesa. In Strasbourg, France, the Council of Europe honors him with a human-rights award. In ceremonies there, he is accorded the protocol usually reserved for heads of state. Before Mass at
Rebellion Among The Rebels
When several angry Nicaraguan contra field commanders last year challenged Enrique Bermudez, the rebel army’s “Supreme Commander,” their first tactical move reflected the dynamics of power within the anti-Sandinista movement: they called the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa to request a meeting with the
Mirage
LOST HILLS, Calif.–On a recent May afternoon when the temperature was toying with triple digits, Dr. Joseph Skorupa, a federal wildlife biologist looking for bird eggs, walked a low earthen levee between two vast pools of shallow water. With light-colored clothing and a
Chile’s Lost Generation
We were the generation that thought we had the world in our hands. We were building a new country, and we gave our all to the cause. We lived and felt intensely, every moment. Estela Ortiz, 39, a communist youth activist during the
The Economic Chaos In Mexico: A Primer
MEXICO CITY–Augustina Cruz lives in the western fringe of Mexico City in a one-room ramshackle house built of broken boards and cartons and a rusty strip of metal for a roof. Each morning Cruz, 45, a widowed mother of five, walks the short
A Dam on the Danube: The Greening of Hungarian Politics
ESZTERGOM, Hungary–For more than 20 years, Istvan Horvath sifted and searched for Hungary’s buried treasures: ancient gold coins, altars, arches and urns. Were it not for the bulldozers on the banks of the Danube, he would have gone on digging peacefully for another
The Ambush of A Young Sandinista: An Early Contra Victory
The death of Daniel Teller in a 1983 contra ambush deeply shook colleagues throughout the Sandinista Front. He’d proven himself to be one of Nicaragua’s most brilliant and promising young political cadres. During four years of revolutionary work in northern Jinotega province, Teller
Trying Out a New Country Before Climate Requires They Move
Against the Rising Tide
Canadian Wetlands Produce Fuel for U.S.
Investigative Report: Promises and Poverty
A Union Once Again Woos Underpaid Farmworkers
“Gone Time” Lives Anew in Alabama
Revisiting The Appalachian Coalfield
America’s Young Detainees
A Citizen On Paper Has No Weight
The Blackfeet’s Lost Acres
The Challenges and Growth of Progressive Muslims
Good Germs Gone Bad
Sweeping out the Plains
Lives in Looting
When Conflict Focuses on Citizenship
Brother’s Keeper: One Family, Two Suicides
Classmates: Portraits of a Chinese Generation
Aquaculture Moves Offshore
The Work of a Pullman Porter
The Mystery of Cancer in Alaska
The Cultural Broker in Refugee Resettlement
The Fake Crisis over Lawsuits: Who’s Paying to Keep the Myths Alive?
On The Americana Road Again
Disease: Shrimp Aquaculture’s Biggest Problem
America’s “Give While You Live” Philanthropist
Gateways of India’s Globalization
Choosing Servility To Staff America’s Trains
Murdering Women For Entertainment
The Curse of Cancer
How Long Will It Last?
Of Birds and Bombs
“The Monkey’s Head”
The Dichotomies in Indian Women’s Lives
Stopping the Pillage
A Judge in Coal Country
General on a Tightrope
Haitians in New York
A Letter from Baku: The Story Behind the Oil
The Life and Legacy of Paul de Kruif
An Amazon Preserve
What Bodies?
Belly of the Beast
A Son Confronts Oil Poverty in the Niger Delta
When the Sea Calls
A Museum In Black and White
