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Shania Fan in Kurdistan: Today's story on Iraqi
elections (see story) was delayed by technical
difficulties of the kind that make journalists pull
their hair out. After writing the piece,
correspondent Annia Ciezadlo went to an Internet
cafe to send it. Her Apple laptop would not start.
The next day, she found a computer technician in
Sulaymaniyah who was sure he could fix it. "He
pulled out his screwdrivers and began to disassemble
it before my eyes," she says.
While he was working, he asked Annia where she was
from. "Chicago? That's a great city. Do you know
why?"
By way of answering, he turned on another computer
in his shop that began playing a Shania Twain
concert in Chicago. "For two hours, he danced and
worked," says Annia. "He said 'Shania is my guide,'
sighing, and rolling his eyes to the heavens. 'She
is teaching me English.' But he fixed the computer,
and only charged me $25, so it was worth being
subjected to an entire Shania Twain concert. I
think."
• Front-line Portraits: The Iraqi war zone may be
remote, but many family members of marines in
Fallujah (see story), where staff writer Scott
Peterson was embeded, followed their sons and
husbands on the Monitor website, and photos on the
Getty Images site. "The feedback from families has
been positive and remarkable," says Scott, though
sometimes the depiction of life on the front line
has had its drawbacks."
One marine, when he finally managed to get a call
home, was asked why he was outside the armored
vehicle. Another was harangued for not wearing his
helmet. One marine was told that of the five photos
of him, three showed him smoking cigarettes. And
several others ran into trouble with the women in
their lives. For example, one image showed a marine
beside photos of half-nude women taped to the inside
a military vehicle, and was then linked to on a
marine wives' website.
http://www.csmonitor.com
"There was mountains of gratitude for the real-time
information on what the unit was doing," says Scott.
"The families always finished with, 'Keep up the
good work.' "
Scott tried to do just that, by burning CDs of
stories and photos, for each marine in the unit he
was embedded with.
David Clark Scott
World editor
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