STORIES THAT NEED TO BE TOLD

Field Notes

Shatila

The following are excerpts from Fieldnotes from Shatila. Last year I received an email from Dr. Eyad El Sarraj, who I had met and stayed with in Gaza, in 1996, where I did a story on posttraumatic stress syndrome ...

Eyads-israeli informer

Symptoms of trauma are defense mechanisms against unbearable circumstances and events. They are also signs that the mind is healthy. The problems start after the circumstances are over and the defense mechanisms ...

Kamal’s Story

The smell of rotting garbage in hot humid air; trickles of raw sewage draining down concrete troughs etched in a narrow lane between high walls connecting a maze of cinder-block houses. The first iron door on the ...

Trauma in Gaza

Multitudes of cheering Palestinians shake hands, kiss, hug, and cry with each other on the streets of Gaza City tonight. Car horns blare and people jubilantly shoot their guns into the air to welcome their brothers ...

Alsa Masa

Preseident Durantes program of eliminating drugs through sanctioning  dead squads,  has  it’s roots in the notion of  a program called “The Peoples’ Watch”  or “Masa Masid” which would allow ...

Circus Ethiopia

In 1996 I spent  over two months travelling  with a circus that was meant to curb the trauma of children who found themselves on the streets of Ethiopia.  Ethiopia has a long history of  political strife and ...

Burma Pagoda Hill 1987

The top of Pagoda Hill is a boat ride, a truck ride and two days’ walk from Manerplaw, and light years away from everything sane. I am wet with perspiration and aching from exhaustion after hours of climbing to a ...