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Lebanon 2021

View of Jouneih, Lebanon, eight miles north of Beirut, and the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Beneath this idyllic setting an active volcano of sorts lurks. Always blessed with scenic beauty and welcoming citizens who possess boundless optimism and a penchant for adapting to any situation, the country has faced one catastrophe after another for 46 years. It began with a civil war [1975-90] that resulted in more than 100,000 deaths. Although the conflict ended and the country rebuilt, the divisiveness that caused the war has lingered. Rival family clans, Muslim and Christian factions, an inept and corrupt government that places self-interest above all, and the misfortune of being strategically located between two warring countries – Israel and Syria – have kept Lebanon a chaotic mess. Yet, somehow, last year it got worse. A massive amount of ammonium nitrate, stored at the Beirut port, exploded. The blast, one of the largest non-nuclear events in history, killed more than 200 people, left 300,000 people homeless, and delivered a crushing blow to the vaunted Lebanese spirit. More recently, the country’s banking system, weighted by unsustainable debt, collapsed, spiraling the country toward economic ruin. Among the many absent necessities: One hour or so of electricity daily is the norm for generator-less households. Yet those who remain and soldier on with great courage want to believe that somehow, some way the past can be recaptured. As a native son I root for them and wonder: What else can they do?

Australia 1992

Sydney Harbor at sunset. The vista is at the top of almost every most beautiful harbors in the world list. I had just completed a five-week reporting trip to Fiji, New Zealand and Australia. On my final night in Sydney I taxied to the home of a cousin I had never met, located in the affluent foothills above the city. When Nancy Melick and her husband, Roy, greeted me at the front door, I ignored them. For directly behind, across a spacious great room and through sliding glass doors that led to their balcony-deck, was this view. The light was fading fast. “Please excuse me,” I said. “I hate to be rude but I have to take this picture. Now.” And, sprinting through their home to the deck, I did.

Lebanon 1990

The 15-year civil war was finally ending. But families still suffered from the loss of loved ones, no work and the stress from so many years of civil strife. Jima Salami of Qousayya, a village in central Lebanon on the Syrian border, had to deal with different but equally daunting issues. Her father was imprisoned leaving her mother and three siblings almost destitute. They lived in a home constructed of concrete blocks about the size of a two-car garage. Each day was a struggle with a goal of surviving and making it to the next. Yet today, 31 years later, many Lebanese – including Jima, a mother of two – will tell you they are worse off than during the war as the country is on the brink of economic ruin.

Nepal 1984

I was on a 5-day summer hike in the foothills of the Himalayas, traversing paths through small villages, pastures and desolate boulder fields. At times I reached 9,000-plus feet, adding to the challenge. I camped in open fields, where I could most often find smooth, level ground. One morning I woke to the sound of a cow bell and looked out my open tent window into a thick high-valley fog. Peering at me were a pair of youths tending to their herd. The boy in front is holding a type of umbrella crafted from bamboo that covers his body and any crops he might be carrying on his back. I did not have to move as my camera was nearby.

Yemen 1984

An idle shopkeeper in Sana’a Old City welcomed my interest in his distinguished almost regal manner, uncommon in the city’s ancient market. The city, Yemen’s capital, is one of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities and, at 7,500 ft., one of the highest.

India 1982

I walked out of an antiquity shop in New Dehli and saw a three-wheeled motorized rickshaw taxi waiting for customers. As I passed behind it the young driver, who had been sitting in the rear seat to escape the hot sun, turned to peer out the back window.

Tokyo 1994

On a rare, uncrowded Tokyo street I walked by a building with a mirrored glass façade that sloped from top to bottom. Looking up at the building I was struck by the reflected image of geometrical patterns. One thing was missing. I waited. And, then, into the scene came a briefcase-toting businessman.

India 1991

On Dec. 3, 1984, a gas leak at the Union Carbide chemicals plant in the industrial city of Bhopal killed more than 3,000 people, most of them living in a nearby shanty town. It remains the world’s worst industrial accident. For the survivors, the ordeal was just beginning. Another reported 20,000 have since died from various cancers, lung and heart disease and other ailments related to chemical exposure. It took 23 years, but the Indian government finally confirmed 558,125 Bhopal residents suffered illnesses of varying levels and permanence. Compensation of $3.3 billion for Bhopal’s dead and sick was requested; seven years later Union Carbide paid $470 million – about $500 per person - and $17 million for a new hospital for gas victims. A subsequent lawsuit in 2010 asking for another $1.1 billion was rejected by India’s Supreme Court last month – 13 years later. “The question of compensation can't be raked up three decades after the [initial] settlement,” the court said in its ruling. I interviewed the family pictured here in 1991. At the time, Shivnarayan and Lela Rathore lived with their three-year-old daughter Laxaman in a government apartment complex for gas victims. They already had lost three other children and Laxaman, held by her father, was not well. Almost 40 years later, those exposed to the gas leak - as well as their children and grandchildren - suffer from an astounding number of medical issues. Omwati Yadav, who lives near the shuttered plant, told The Guardian newspaper of London in 2019: “It would be better if there was another gas leak which could kill us all and put us all out of this misery.”

Alabama 1990

A preacher prepares a young woman for a Christian baptism in a rural Calhoun County, Ala. stream while members of the church choir add to the intensity of the ritual. I had only been working at The Anniston Star a few days when the paper’s ace photographer Ken Elkins asked me to join him on an assignment on a Sunday morning in June. “River baptism,” he said, something I had never seen as I was new to the South. Over the next five years Ken and I occasionally would wander along the backroads of Calhoun County and beyond seeking interesting characters. They were plentiful. Ken’s skill as a photographer was matched by his instinct for a great story. Comically, he sometimes served as my interpreter as rural southern slang was a new language to this Midwesterner. Although I always was the reporter and he the shooter, on this day I happened to have my camera as well. So, I had a baptism of sorts myself as I waded into the stream to take this picture.

South Korea 1984

As I toured a U.S. Army outpost on the South Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone, I stumbled upon a ceremony involving the re-enlistment of an American soldier. In the background, on the North Korean side of the DMZ, as it’s been known since its establishment in 1953 following the end of the Korean War, I could see the town of Kijong-dong. But, in fact, Kijong-dong is a fabricated place of concrete shells with a population of zero. Locals say the purpose of the illusionary town is two-fold: Lure South Korean defectors and portray a sense of prosperity in a country that most experts believe is one of the world’s poorest.

Djibouti 1984

Impatient citizens attempt to circumvent the line in front of city hall and take their grievances directly to the mayor of Djibouti City through his office window. This former French colony is Africa’s smallest mainland country with a population of around 900,000. It features a harsh, arid landscape of desert, mountains and few trees. Strategically located in the Horn of Africa, Djibouti is near shipping lanes with access to the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. As a result, numerous countries have a military presence here, including the U.S. and the French Foreign Legion. I mention the latter because while waiting in the capital to hitch a truck ride to neighboring Somalia I witnessed an all-night party binge at nearby bars by Legion soldiers that included occasional celebratory gunfire. I missed experiencing Dodge City and Tombstone in their heyday, so a Saturday night in Djibouti City, Djibouti will have to suffice.

Saudi Arabia 1982

Palestinian Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat, prior to speaking at a rally in Jeddah in fall 1982. Arafat had been on the run for several months, after Israel destroyed PLO headquarters in Lebanon in retaliation for PLO raids into Israel from south Lebanon. Several hundred people attended the event, including exiled former Ugandan President Idi Amin. I was on assignment for The Washington Post and was the only reporter present. Sitting to Arafat’s right is Khalil al-Wazir, who directed the PLO’s military operations. The two rarely were seen in public together for security reasons. Six years later, Wazir, known as Abu Jihad, was assassinated by Israeli commandos in Tunisia.