Pulitzer Center Untold Stories

Press TV interview

By David Enders

You can watch my recent interview with Press TV (the Iranian government-owned English language satellite channel) here.

Interestingly, HR 1308, proposed in June, would make Press a terrorist organization.

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You can watch my recent interview with Press TV (the Iranian government-owned English language satellite channel) here.

Interestingly, HR 1308, proposed in June, would make Press a terrorist organization.

Learn more about this project

Iraqi Army in Sadr City Prayer Space

By Richard Rowley

The Iraqi Army built a base in the outdoor space where 7,000 Sadr City residents pray every Friday.
This Friday, they posted snipers on rooftops and checkpoints around the mosque.
The Jeish al Mehdi tried to keep worshipers from confronting the soldiers.

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Winning the war?

By David Enders

The most amazing thing to me on this trip has been the ability to visit places I haven't been able to go since 2006, and in some cases, since 2005. It stirs memories, good and bad, but the most striking things are the physical changes (and in some cases, lack thereof) in Baghdad as the war drags on through its fifth year.

Continue reading "Winning the war?" »

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Engaging the world, North Carolina style

Jon Sawyer, Pulitzer Center

Every summer, the last weekend of July, a hardy band of world-watchers gathers in Black Mountain, N.C., for the Southeastern World Affairs Institute. They've been at it for 55 years and for nearly half that time I've been there too, in recent years as the in-house journalist who gives the closing summary of the talks.

This year's topic was trans-Atlantic relations and the roster of speakers, as usual, was superb -- from the long-time editor/publisher of Germany's die Zeit newspaper to the chief Washington spokesman for the European Commission to leading academics from Brown University, the Naval Academy and Davidson College. The summary gives you an overview of what we heard.

But as good as they are, it's not the speakers who keep me coming back. It's the group itself, a self-selected community determined to take seriously their responsibilities as citizens -- and to stay seriously engaged throughout their lives. It's an inspiration to be with them, a reminder that our work as journalists matters and that we should do our best to do it well.

For more information about the institute check out the website of the sponsoring organization, the American Freedom Association. And next July, come to North Carolina!

Anything is better than civil war

By Richard Rowley

A hot summer, even for Baghdad.
The Tigris drops. Sea grass under the bridges.
'Are you a river?' asked Al-Sayyab, 'or a forest of tears?'

They only found 83 bodies last week.

Rebar and concrete husks punched through by rockets.
Facades wrapped around hot air and broken furniture.
A hundred miles of concrete, and the wooden stock, warn smooth under his hand.

Exhale, and count the beats against his wrist.
Once more before we die - a lungful of Anbar's fine dust, and a mouthful of Tigris water. . .
'If I could, I would drink the whole river.'

16 buried in shallow graves
40 ripped apart by car bombs
18 in suicide attacks
9 by small arms fire

These years taught us calculations we never should have made:

A dictatorship is better than an occupation, but anything, anything is better than civil war.

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Amman-Baghdad

By Richard Rowley

The buses have all gone. We are left alone with the oil stained pavement and the taste of cardamom.

Amman - when will you deserve your pale white stone, your thin air and your two million refugees?

Mercenaries grow old here, skin hangs to muscle and bone. Oily stares that hope for nothing.

Our black wing passes over the crescent moon. We dive into the darkness of Baghdad.

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Communities and Concessions

By Nadia Sussman

SAN FRANCISCO — One of the strangest things about Guatemala is how close it is to the US. And how easy to leave. In our plane, we effortlessly crossed the border where Mexico tries to keep the Guatemalans out, then cleared the wall the US is building to keep the Mexicans out. Just four and a half hours out of Guatemala City’s gleaming new airport we landed in LA.

It is jarring to move so quickly from one environment to the next. And I am reminded that this very act — the ability to move freely — has so much to do with the situation in Petén ...

Continue reading "Communities and Concessions" »

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All blog posts from The Future of Petén

A Visit to Beef National Park

By Michael Stoll

LAGUNA DEL TIGRE NATIONAL PARK, Guatemala — The sign announcing the entrance to Laguna del Tigre National Park is large and impressive. The problem is, that’s about the only visible sign that you’re entering a “core protected area” of a massive national wilderness preserve.

We traveled about five hours by four-wheel-drive pickup truck on drenched dirt roads with four police officers riding in the back through kilometer after endless kilometer of cattle pasture clearly converted recently from primary tropical forest. The cows munched grass that had grown up among the charred stumps of massive trees that once formed a canopy over this vast terrain dotted by wetlands and savanna. Though the radio station was tuned to a popular rock/salsa/reggaeton station, whose name translated to “Mahogany 94.5,” all the mahogany trees, and tropical cedars, had long since been cut down along the entire route ...

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All blog posts from The Future of Petén

On patrol with Guatemalan environment officials and soldiers

By Michael Stoll

LA PASADITA, Guatemala — The signs were all there: tree stumps, hastily constructed barbed-wire fences and stray cattle. All that was missing was the perpetrator — or perpetrators — of this all too common environmental crime.

About 45 hectares of forestland had been burned, replaced by corn plots and tall grasses, with a few cattle scattered about. About 50 head of cattle congregated around an artificial watering hole.
Officials said they arrested the men they believed to be responsible for this unauthorized land-use change, but they were out of jail on administrative supervision. They face long prison terms if convicted.

The problem is that log-slash-burn-farm-ranch-abandon cycles are rampant in this area...

Continue reading " On patrol with Guatemalan environment officials and soldiers" »

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All blog posts from The Future of Petén

Bridging the Gap: Traditional Journalism and New Media

Brian Mahoney, Pulitzer Center

Last March, Pulitzer Center Executive Director Jon Sawyer appeared on BBC America with Loyce Kareri, a winner in the March 2008 Pulitzer Center-Helium Global Issues/Citizen Voices contest.

Loyce and Jon spoke about how citizen journalists and the mainstream media can cooperate to inform and engage the public on international issues.

One of the Pulitzer Center's goals is to engage as many citizens as possible, so it was no surprise to see that an individual, Jomo Kitale from Kenya, uploaded the report to the bastion of user-generated media: YouTube.