Reporters on the Job
from the May 1, 2007 edition
• You're Not in Afghanistan Anymore: War zones can take their toll on the outlook of civilians caught in the conflict. Staff writer Mark Sappenfield was only
in Chhattisgarh, India, for 10 days, yet he struggled with the dark mental climate there. In India, fighting between Maoist
insurgents and Indian security forces has gone on for three decades (see story). He found Chhattisgarh more depressing than Afghanistan.
"In Afghanistan, there remains a fierce pride and strength of will, " says Mark. "Perhaps these qualities cause their fair share of trouble, but they also produce an iron defiance in the face of the most terrible atrocities – an unyielding resolution to be unbowed."
"In the jungles of Dantewada district I saw a people utterly broken. Whereas Afghans looked you directly in the eye, chin resolute, the people at the refugee camp had all but conceded, slump-shouldered and speaking softly, staring at nothing."
Mark was told by many people there that the aboriginal people of this part of rural India, often called tribals, are "a simple people" easily led.
"That is a broad statement," he admits."But it did seem clear that these people felt forsaken by their leaders – by the Naxalites who were using them for their own ends, and by authorities who only wanted to herd them into camps. It struck me as a sad lesson on how a gentle people can be broken by those who rule over them."
– David Clark Scott
World editor
SURVEY SAYS...
• Proletariat Is Passé: Only one in 1,000 children in Shanghai, China, want to grow up to be a common worker, once hailed as the vanguard of class struggle, a Communist Party newspaper said on Monday, a day before the Labour Day holiday. The Party paper quoted steel worker Han Mingming as saying. "Who wants to work with high risk, low pay, and no respect?"
Cultural snapshot |
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