The New Republic
Tennis helps bring Somalia’s dead capital back to life.
October 2, 2000
The tennis courts at Casa d’Italia, a country club in Mogadishu, have nourished several generations of players. First, there were the Italians who built the club and who controlled ...
Category: New Republic
Open Sesame
The New Republic
North Korea opens up.
June 12, 2000
In early 1995, Tony Namkung received a phone call from a diplomat at the North Korean mission to the United Nations. Would it be possible, the diplomat asked, to arrange for the magician David Copperfield to perform in Pyongyang? ...
Court Martial
The New Republic
An Islamic militia gains ground in Somalia.
March 13, 2000
Over the past decade Somalia has earned a reputation as the world capital of senseless violence. It scores almost as high in the poverty department. The coastal city of Merca, then, is that strangest of phenomena–a ...
The Secrets of Mississippi
The New Republic
Post-authoritarian shock in the South.
December 21, 1998
Jesse Morris walks past a Civil War memorial that casts a long shadow in front of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. He enters the bunker-like building and passes into a quiet, book-lined library ...
Back to Bosnia
The New Republic
A war correspondent returns.
October 12, 1998
A flashback: I heard the sniper’s shot before I saw Haris Bahtanovic fall to the ground. He was walking through a park-turned-shooting-gallery behind Sarajevo’s Holiday Inn. A few men rushed into the open and ...