Encore

One final selection of favorites, with glimpses of Russia, Bangladesh, Georgia, Vietnam, Kalmykia, the Philippines and Cambodia

Last Look



As Villages Die, the Russian Heartland Empties Out

ISUPOVO, Russia,
February 5, 2004 : He is the last man left, ragged and forgotten in his two-room house, and when he dies this little village lost in the snows of central Russia will...

Continue Reading »



Stark Village Justice: Must the Lovers Be Flogged?

DHAKA, Bangladesh
June 15, 1987 : Disgraced and threatened with public whipping, the lovers have turned against each other, and their stories, told in sullen monotones...

Continue Reading »



Georgia’s Huddled Children Bleakly Awaiting Tomorrow

TELAVI, Georgia, January 15, 2004. : Finally, a few months ago, when the cracked walls of the dormitory seemed about to burst, a foreign aid group hired someone...

Continue Reading »



Life and Death on a Mountain of Garbage

MANILA, The Philippines, JULY 18, 2000 : Maria Luz Ochondra ran for her life, pursued by an erupting volcano of garbage that roared like a wounded giant, heaved like a tidal wave, then burst...

Continue Reading »



Crowds Go Wild for Clinton in Hanoi

HANOI, Vietnam,
November 18, 2000 : It happened twice: the president of the United States, his face glowing, walked right up to Dang Dinh Hiep, grasped his hand and gave him ...

Continue Reading »



Where Chess Is King and the People Are the Pawns

ELISTA, Rusia,
June 20, 2004 : Back in the days of the Silk Road caravans, this is what people might have called a mirage — a huge glass dome, surrounded by a...

Continue Reading »



Surviving the Killing Fields, then Ambushed by AIDS

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia,
July 7, 2001 : Just as Cambodia is emerging from three decades of war and mass killings, it finds itself swept by the beginnings of a new scourge: AIDS. Cambodia is the sickest...

Continue Reading »



A Folk Tradition Fades, but the Melody Lingers On

LO KHE, Vietnam,
March 18, 2001 : Late at night, when the silence of the village and the emptiness of her damp stone cottage become too deep to bear, Pham Thi Mui begins to sing familiar songs of...

Continue Reading »