World Politics Review runs a translation of Swiss journalist Kurt Pelda's report on covering the conflict in Darfur. It is a behind-the-scenes sort of article which gives an interesting flavor of the place, a welcome respite from the sort of coverage one sees elsewhere. Many of the asides are most enlightening. His local assistant Adam, who foremrly worked in Libya, is the source of much insight:"As far as the Libyans were concerned, all blacks were slaves. That's what they called us. When other Sudanese said, 'But they are Arabs'," the Libyans laughed at them. 'If you blacks are Arabs,' they said, 'then what are we? Angels perhaps?'" In 1995, Adam went to the Sudanese embassy in Tripoli to have his passport renewed. He was asked to which tribe he belonged and when he said, the embassy officials seized his passport: "Luckily, I had friends in the Chadian embassy. They gave me a Chadian passport." As a result, Adam is nowadays a Chadian citizen....(Read Full Post)