Reporters on the Job

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She reported on the Zabbaleen for the Monitor in 1990, when the Egyptian authorities forced them to give up their donkey carts for trucks and there was fear they would be unable to survive given this substantial expense. To this day, the Zabbaleen pick up her garbage. With hefty baskets on their backs they climb the grungy, narrow back stairs nearly every day to each apartment in her five-story building near downtown Cairo. The charge: $1.00 per month.

• NO GAS MASK YET: While reporting today's story about Israeli preparations for an Iraqi attack ( see story), The Monitor's Cameron Barr was dismayed to learn that he could not purchase a government- issued "personal protection kit" - which includes a gas mask for adults, hoods and tents for children, and a nerve-gas antidote. Under Israeli government regulations, noncitizens - including foreign correspondents and other residents with work permits - will be without protection until the Israeli government declares a state of emergency. At that point, Cameron says, "we'll have the privilege of joining the masses headed to the department store downtown to buy a gas mask. Can you imagine what the mob scene is going to be like?"

Though his reporting has left him feeling that an Iraqi chemical attack is unlikely, Cameron says, "Personally, I'd rather not wait around for the state of emergency declaration."

David Clark Scott
World editor

Cultural snapshot

HIGH DIVE: Australian Jimmy Freeman parachutes off a 1,389-foot Kuala Lumpur building. Sunday, a nine-day extreme high-diving tournament - off tall buildings - concluded in Malaysia. TEH ENG KOON/AP

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