Tel Aviv – Loneliness and Confusion
After the nonstop fun of Amman and Beirut, I become reflexive sitting in a cold house on a quiet street in Tel Aviv. I’m sitting in the house I’m renting in Tel Aviv. It’s in the middle of nowhere, a [...]
Beirut – Thank God I Left Amman
Night Life, Bright Life in Beirut. I travel around what is now my favorite city. Beirut. Wow. It is an explosion of life after Amman. It’s almost overwhelming. I realized, flying in last night, that I didn’t really know what [...]
Amman – Saddam’s sister
Saddam’s sister in Amman. I saw Saddam Hussein’s sister yesterday. It was chilling, it was scary. I was just standing in the lobby of my hotel with Arun. We were just talking, I was going to go up and write [...]
Amman – Bored Reporters and Tortured Iraqis
After several dull days and no visa, I meet Iraqis who help me see the horror of Saddam Hussein’s regime. I haven’t been posting lately. I feel like I fell into a foggy place where nothing interesting has been happening. [...]
Tel Aviv, Amman – And Points In Between
I go from Tel Aviv to Amman (learning the secret to crossing the border much more quickly) and I sit on carpets with an Iraqi soldier and his friend, the smuggler. Driving around Tel Aviv is stomach-wrenchingly frustrating. Drivers are [...]
Tel Aviv – The search for a good story
Frustration at not finding a good story leads me to drug addicts, ultra-Orthodox radio hosts and a shopping mall. It feels so different, for me at least, to wake up in Tel Aviv . I’m in this nice house on [...]
Tel Aviv – Crossing the Border
The long, miserable experience of crossing the border from Jordan to Tel Aviv and some thoughts on the differences between Israel and the Arab World. The long, miserable experience of crossing the border from Jordan to Tel Aviv and some [...]
Amman – Computers and Keffiyehs
I see how West meets the Arab World all the time. Today was a good day to see how clearly the West and the Arab World clash in Jordan all the time. I spent the morning interviewing people for a [...]
Amman – Among the Islamists
I spend the morning with the leading opposition figures in Jordan. I went to the engineer’s union this morning to meet its ex-presidents, Laith Shbaylat and Ali Abu-Sukr (I love both names, they sound particularly cool when Jordanians say them). [...]
Amman – Where’s my Visa?
I try and fail (we all try and fail) to get an Iraqi visa, but I do describe the Iraqi embassy and the lack of press freedom here. The quest for an Iraqi visa is now at a fevered pitch. [...]