In 2019, We Were There: 12 Favorite Dispatches From the Earth’s 4 Corners

In 2019, We Were There: 12 Favorite Dispatches From the Earth’s 4 Corners


Getting there would make all the variance. When our correspondents are on the floor — or underground or on the ice or at sea — they, and you, can get up shut to the tale, often uncomfortably so, uncovering vital information that no phone job interview could ever seize.

This implies touring to some of the world’s most significantly-flung and hazardous locations, from an Islamic Point out camp in Syria, to the jungles of Thailand where armed rosewood smugglers roam, to an Afghan arena where the vicious fighting canine pose the the very least of the hazards.

Residing there issues, far too. When our correspondents expend a long time as residents of the locations they protect, they uncover cultural truths about a state that only bit by bit reveal themselves. The Germans love to go rapidly and, as we’ll see, to get bare. The Senegalese will never miss a exercise session. The Lebanese may not like each other, but they adore basketball. In China, a parade can mean an eviction.

Invest sufficient time in a put and even humble objects and day to day animals can reveal outsize insights about a country’s mood and manners. Clay pots in Myanmar. Bagels in Montreal. A quirky ’60s convertible in Britain. A rooster in France. Snakes in Canada.

When covering India’s climatic extremes, a healthcare emergency intervened, and the tale turned not only about monsoons, but also about Indian culture, the human head and most cancers.

“I was taken for lifeless by a mortuary crew, who toe-tagged me with the pursuing ID: ‘Unknown Caucasian male, age 47 and a fifty percent,’” our reporter wrote. “Nothing could have cheered me up far more. It was only days until my 70th birthday.”

—By Rod Nordland

As South Korea’s birthrate plummets, rural faculties are emptying. To fill its school rooms, 1 school opened its doorways to females who have for yearned for many years to discover to browse and generate.

“Writing letters to my children, that’s what I dreamed of the most,” stated a single of the college students, who vary in age from 56 to 80.

—By Choe Sang-Hun images and video clip by Chang W. Lee

“Paraguay is the land of impunity,” said a infamous drug kingpin we interviewed in his jail mobile.

Australia’s premier metropolis has a scarce superpower: It turns urbanites into bird persons, and birds into urbanites. Interacting with the big avian population is a everyday experience and (generally) a delight.



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