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Reporter: Forty Years Covering Asia Online iZXjl (Mobile ebook) Reporter: Forty Years Covering Asia Online [iZXjl.ebook] Reporter: Forty Years Covering Asia Pdf Free John McBeth *Download PDF | ePub | DOC | audiobook | ebooks Download Now Free Download Here Download eBook #4185952 in Books 2011-01 #File Name: 9810873646400 pages | File size: 56.Mb John McBeth : Reporter: Forty Years Covering Asia before purchasing it in order to gage whether or not it would be worth my time, and all praised Reporter: Forty Years Covering Asia: 5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. This is the way it was....By PBjWBest enjoyed by those who might be curious to know what it was like to be a journalist working in Asia over the last decades before the days of cell phones, e-mail and the internet. Or those who did work in media in Asia during this period. Not to mention anyone headed out to Asia, as there's more than war stories in Reporter. It's a faithful account of how Asia worked, and in many ways, still does work.McBeth holds no punches: the stories are told straight and honest; the people are real. Included are some of the best stories of their time--the bombing of a Cathay Pacific flight enroute from Bangkok to Hong Kong, military coups, meetings with some of the most famous politicians, heroes and villains of the period. Readers will recognise some of the stories from having read of them in the media. McBeth covers not only some of the stories behind these stories (what everyone now knows as the "back stories") but includes no less spell-binding tales that never made it into print, keeping this book a page-turner.Because I worked in media in Asia during this period (albeit at desk jobs), I loved this book. Downed in a single long night, it was like catching up with an old friend in your favourite corner of the pre-gussied up Hong Kong FCC (Foreign Correspondents Club). I didn't know John, but I know the world he describes, and many of the people he knew, and this is one of the best books in the ASIA- JOURNALISTS-BEEN THERE genre (One Crowded Hour, Frontline, Page after Page, Derailed in Uncle Ho's Garden, etc.). My constant refrain today when I meet old friends from this world is, "Have you read McBeth's book yet? You'll love it."3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Forty Years of Living DangerouslyBy Curious ReaderJohn McBeth, a Kiwi, who left New Zealand and a job with the local paper, to broaden his horizons, arrives to the Far East on a freighter, bound for Singapore. It's grounded in Jakarta, and that's where his remarkable tale takes off. Back then, Jakarta was swampy backwater, a far cry from the over crowded skyscraper infested city of today.In his words:"...While this book may necessarily be a memoir, I would like to think it is more a reflection of the lives of a generation of journalists who came to Asia on a wing and a prayer - and in my case by ship - and stayed on as fascinated witnesses to a region going through historic political and economic change. We all have a story to tell. We have also had a lot of great times that will never be repeated."I tracked down McBeth, who I was told was good mates with Neil Davis, the Australian cinema-camera man that Tim Bowden wrote about in One Crowded Hour. How I tracked him down was interesting. A former reporter from Voice of America had posted a video on YouTube about the soundman, Bill Latch, who died the same day with Davies, while they were covering a Bangkok coup on Sept 9, 1985. He told me that Bill was always worried that one day he might die because Davies took risks to get the shot. But Davies admitted, in One Crowded Hour, that he didn't like having someone tethered to him, which would put other people at risk.Two years after first initial contact, McBeth eventually gives me the green light to meet him at Four Seasons in Jakarta. I got a text from him, saying to look out for a guy with blonde graying hair who is wearing gray slacks and a polo shirt. I was waiting out side, and saw him enter. I followed. He was waiting in the foyer. I went up to him and shook his hand. And then we settled down in the sports bar.There was no prominent limp when I met him. I had read that he lost a leg. I assumed it was covering some battle in the region. I put it to him. "No, it was from smoking." He has a chapter devoted to how he lost his leg.We listened, spell bound, with Mc Beth's story telling. I didn't know at the time, but he was giving me anecdotes that came straight off the pages of his book. He talked about Tim Page, and how they were coving the opium production in Thailand. Page was taking pictures of the poppy for a story John was writing for FEER (Far Eastern Economic Review) . He fell through a hut, which I presumed served as an opium den. Everyone was laughing. Another incident was a meeting with Tim at his place in Bangkok. Tim goes into the wrong apartment, and makes himself at home. When Mac Beth gets home, he sees Tim on the balcony talking to his neighbor.McBeth could well be a character from The Year of LIving Dangerously. He says he wasn't in Indonesia in that time. I told him I was impressed with Koch's book Photographer. He said Koch did well, never stayed long in a place, but really captured it well. He believes that with One Crowded Hour, Bowden could have done more interviews, and got different points of views.I asked John about what really happened on that dreaded day when Davies, the Old Fox, was killed. it. He said that Burns, an Australian reporter who was then working for UK's Visnews, was dragging Davies to safety, still believing he may be alive. And no one had any idea that shrapnel had nipped Latches' liver, which caused his death a few hours later. It is in the book. Mac Beth goes a bit deeper on the death of Neil, that wasn't quite followed up in One Crowded Hour. He also relates an anecdote how Neil diffuses a situation on the boarder, in Arunyaprathet, where he shakes a soldier's hand, so that he would put his gun down which was menacingly pointing at a refugee. Over a coffee -- he was drinking a beer, and easing into the years, he says:. "I feel like Neil just died yesterday."It's interesting when McBeth is being threatened with deportation, but the powers that be in Thailand decide that he love's Thailand, and he is allowed to report for another day. The Grand Prix, in Pat Pong gets a good mention. There's the issue of how old is Neil Davis. So McBeth gives an assignment to a reporter, who is on his way to Tasmania. Davis real age is disclosed, and a court is set up, to determine his real age, at the Grand Prix. It gives you an idea of the larks these reporters had in their day.This is a very personal book, and is heavy on comradeship."We were all close friends in the Bangkok press corps back then," wires McBeth. "They were what I like to call the salad days of journalism when the stories were everywhere and we were having the time of our lives."I particularly liked his reporting in the Philippines and Indonesia. He covered the earthquake and the volcanic eruption very well. He goes in the heart of the problem that the Philippines face. There's so much corruption there, that their people need to go to foreign shores to make a living. The Bali bombing was a fascinating insight to the motives of the bomber, and how the Indonesia government, in collaboration with the Australian Federal Police, used the latest technology to find the Laughing bomber.McBeth sent me an email, saying that there were too many typos in the book for his liking. He laments that old school journalism is dying thanks to blogging and the Internet:"Reading the printed word these days comes a poor second to television and the Internet, newspapers and magazines are dying all around us, and no one seems to have worked out a formula for commercial success on the web. " An eBook version, with corrections, would certainly remedy his typos and propel sales. But only if he embraces the net, and promotes his books like other authors, Reporter may well be a cult once it's accessible to a larger audience. And also he could drop the lofty price of the book. Who knows, Reporter might give One Crowded Hour a run for its money that is also in Kindle format. Reporter is an account of John McBeth's 40-year journey through Asia,more than half of that time as a correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review, the venerable magazine long regarded as the region's English language Bible on political and economic affairs. While necessarily a memoir, the book is more a reflection of the lives of a small group of foreign journalists who came to Asia on a wing and a prayer -- and in McBeth's case by ship -- and stayed on as fascinated witnesses to a region going through turbulent times and historic change.
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