The Road to Damascus
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U.S. Combat operations in Iraq are over. But for millions of refugees, former soldiers suffering injuries and PTSD, and an entire generation of young Iraqis, there's no end in sight. The tragedy of the war continues in shattered lives, displacement, violence and instability. What does life after the Iraq war look like in the Middle East, and in the U.S.?
CLP journalists reported from Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria in November and December 2010. Their journalism explores the human impact of our generation's war through experimental, transparent storytelling.
Arab Uprising
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On Jan. 25, thousands of protesters took to the streets in cities across Egypt. Encouraged by a successful uprising in Tunisia, Egyptian protesters demanded an end to President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year reign. This series follows the 2011 uprisings in Egypt, Libya and Syria from our contributors on the ground.
Born in Bangladesh
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Eighty percent of women give birth in Bangladesh without medical assistance, often in unsanitary conditions that increase health risks to both mother and child. Despite efforts to improve prenatal care and birthing conditions, the World Health Organization estimates that 380 Bangladeshi women die for every 100,000 births in the country. That’s nearly 30 times the U.S. maternal mortality rate. New solutions, from mobile birthing huts to traveling teams of midwives, are cropping up in Dhaka slums and rural villages alike. The Born in Bangladesh project will explore these innovative approaches to childbirth in one of most impoverished and densely populated countries in the world. In Spring 2011, CLP reporter Chantal Anderson travelled to Bangladesh to report on this important issue through multimedia storytelling.
Yossarian Jumped: A Marine Returns to the Middle East
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Daniel O'Brien, a Seattle native and former Corporal in the US Marine Corps, travelled with the CLP in November and December 2010 in order to blog, document, and remember what the climactic years of the war in Iraq were like.
About the name: One of the greatest books about a war is unquestionably Catch-22. I always saw it as an explanation of the absurdity of the whole endeavor of war. Yossarian is trapped in a dangerous situation where everybody is trying to kill him — even people on his own side. While conducting convoy security in Iraq, I often pondered the similarities between Yossarian’s story and my own. The second to last line of the book reads, “Yossarian jumped,” which illustrates the uncertainty of choices in life. Hopefully this blog will encapsulate just some of the experiences of my seven months in Iraq and explain what made me “jump” back into the uncertainty of the Middle East. --Dan O'Brien
Haitian Labor
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More than 1 in 50 Haitian women dies during childbirth over the course of her lifetime – and the World Health Organization says training midwives is key to saving lives. Oddly enough, the only midwifery training program in Haiti is run by an American midwife who lives in Richmond, Virginia. Reporter Jenny Asarnow will tell the story of this fly-by-night program, and explore what birth is like for laboring women in rural Haiti. Over the course of five weeks, Jenny will also explore the culture of American aid workers, and report on what ordinary Haitians are saying about the March 20 elections. Jenny's trip to Haiti is supported by the International Reporting Project, an independent journalism program at Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC.
Cuban Crossroads
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Last fall, President Raul Castro announced that 178 new private sector jobs — from makeup artist to auto mechanic — are now legal in Cuba. How will a new generation of entrepreneurs, saturated in Communist philosophy, take to the new market? What impact will they have on this transforming nation? With private enterprise on the loose, U.S. travel restrictions easing, and Fidel Castro aging, all signs point to big changes for Cuba in the near future. The free market is making inroads in Communist Cuba, and from April 16-19 the government is convening a rare Communist Party Congress — with major announcements anticipated — to mark the 50th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion. And with President Obama pushing for improved diplomatic relations, all eyes are on this island nation. CLP correspondent Grant Fuller traveled to Havana to document these lives in transition. His special series will include radio features, audio slideshows, photos, and a blog series. Donate to the project now!
Between Worlds/Behind Bars
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From the dark days of the Chinese Exclusion Act to post-Sept. 11 crackdowns on undocumented immigrants, immigration detention has a controversial history in both our nation and in the Puget Sound region. "Between Worlds/Behind Bars" is a four-part series exploring immigration detention from its roots in the 1930s at "Seattle's Ellis Island" in the International District to today's privately run Northwest Detention Center on the Tacoma Tideflats.
Pakistan: Hearts and Minds
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As new leaders in Washington and Islamabad struggle against a surge of Islamic militancy and growing political instability in Pakistan, their greatest challenge will be winning the hearts and minds of 170 million citizens in one of the world’s poorest and most densely populated Muslim countries. Sponsored by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
Water Wars
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While Americans fret about rising gas prices, many experts have argued that the major conflicts of the 21st century will be fought over water, not oil. With support from the Pulitzer Center On Crisis Reporting, multimedia journalists from The Common Language Project and AfrikaNews.org investigate the role of water scarcity in fueling conflict and stifling development in the Eastern African countries of Kenya and Ethiopia.
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