Journalism I Live For

Today’s the kind of column that I deeply believe in, the kind that makes me find meaning in journalism. It’s about an ethnic group called the Rohingya that the Myanmar government is trying to destroy. Whether or not it’s genocide, it’s certainly crimes against humanity — and I’ve found repeatedly that shining a light on brutal oppression usually helps mitigate it. So read the column!

The Myanmar government initially denied me a journalist visa, then relented at the very last minute. And once in northwestern Myanmar, I spent hours sitting in government offices to get the official passes that would get me through police checkpoints to see the Rohingya. I visited Rohingya villages and concentration camps by road and by boat, and it’s horrific to see an entire ethnic group targeted for destruction in this way, with kids starving and dying. After today’s column, I may not get another visa.
Speaking of not getting a visa, North Korea has denied me one for the last few years, but I’ve been covering it on and off for three decades (and have visited twice). North Korean leader Kim Jong Un worries me: He’s young, brash, impulsive, untested and has winnowed out senior North Korean officials who might restrain him. The danger is not just a clash along the DMZ between the two Koreas, but also of nuclear proliferation. North Korea’s economy is in trouble and it doesn’t have much else to export except nuclear materials. We try to stop that, but I’m skeptical of how much we can find: Our intelligence spotters apparently didn’t even notice when the North Koreans sailed the Pueblo (the American warship they had seized from us) all around the Korean peninsula in the 2000s.
A couple of links: Here’s an interview with me about my take on Syria policy and what we should do. And I love The Washington Post’s Fact Checker feature, which has now started a “recidivism watch” for politicians who repeat false statements that have been disproved. In my last newsletter, I listed some of my favorite books for 2015, and someone noted that they were a bit on the depressing side. So here’s another great favorite: “The Rosie Project,” a hilarious novel by Graeme Simsion. It’s truly one of the funniest and most poignant novels I’ve read, and when you’ve finished it, there’s an excellent sequel as well. Speaking of books, there’s an interesting network of book clubs called “Book Clubs 4 Change,” which was started when a book club read my book with Sheryl, “Half the Sky.” Information atbookclubs4change.org.
And now, here’s my column on the Rohingya and the ethnic cleansing being waged against them.