Reporters on the Job
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Still in Aceh: Correspondent Tom McCawley has returned to his home in Jakarta after yet another trip to the tsunami-ravaged areas of Aceh, Indonesia (
see story). Yet, he's still mentally wrestling with what he witnessed. "Covering human tragedy is very demanding. Adrenaline and work pressures force the emotions aside - until you come home. But you'd have to have a heart of stone not to feel, at some point, the grief of those whose lives have been shattered," says Tom.
He says he is still coming to terms with a conversation he had with a 60-year-old man in the Grand Mosque of Banda Aceh. "In some ways, he was fortunate: he still had his children. But everything else - his home, everything he'd built - was gone. He was sweeping the grounds of the mosque, but when I looked in his eyes, all I could see was sadness.
"Everything about my life in Jakarta is back to normal, but these emotions and memories resurface after you get back. Suddenly realize you have to deal with them," he says.
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Booming in Buenos Aires: Even before correspondent Brian Byrnes arrived at the furniture warehouse about 20 miles outside Buenos Aires, the economic revival there was evident. "We pulled off the highway onto this two-lane road that was lined with warehouses. The driver said that two years ago they were closed. They'd all just reopened recently. There were delivery trucks coming in and out of two dozen small factories. It was a clear sign that the economy is bouncing back," says Brian.
In an odd twist, he discovered during his interview with the owner of the cabinet and shelving factory in
today's story that it had produced the cabinets installed in Brian's apartment.
David Clark Scott
World editor
Cultural snapshot
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LIONS AND ROOSTERS:
A dancer peers out from a lion mask during Chinese New Year celebrations at a Beijing park. Wednesday marks the start of the Year of the Rooster. The calendar has a 12-year cycle of animal symbols.
REINHARD KRAUSE/REUTERS
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