Gathering to Celebrate Food on the Frontlines They Also Seek Respite in Food, Drink EVENT PREVIEW: JANUARY 4 and Stories About Food and Drink
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THE MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF THE OVERSEAS PRESS CLUB OF AMERICA, NEW YORK, NY • JANUARY 2012 Gathering to Celebrate Food on the Frontlines they also seek respite in food, drink EVENT PREVIEW: JANUARY 4 and stories about food and drink. A profile of a former chef of Kim by Sonya K. Fry Jong Il of North Korea describes Although not the usual fare for a Kim’s exacting standards for gour- holiday party, “mud crabs” is includ- met fare, which he gorges himself ed in the name of a new book, Eat- on while his country starves. An in- ing Mud Crabs in Kandahar, edited experienced female journalist shares by Matt McAllester. The book con- mud crab in a foxhole with an equal- sists of reports by foreign correspon- ly young Hamid Karzai. dents that are sometimes harrowing, In 1962 the OPC published frequently funny and riveting stories a similar book titled “Overseas about food and eating under extreme Press Club Cookbook: Famous conditions. The names of the corre- correspondents’ anecdotes and spondents will be familiar — OPC recipes from all over the world” award winner Barbara Demick from edited by Sigrid Schultz. North Korea, Janine di Giovanni on Although OPC Holiday Par- Bosnian siege food, Scott Ander- ties have always been fun, atten- son from Northern Ireland, Joshua dance has dwindled and costs es- denly you realize that you are fasci- Hammer from Gaza and Israel, calated so it was decided to have nated by and finally understand a part Tim Hetherington on MREs and an interesting program with some of the world that had previously just a stray cow in the Korengal Val- platters of food and a cash bar. been confusing and overwhelming. ley of Afghanistan and the list goes Matt McAllester has written With one great read after another, on. As these journalists report from several books Beyond the Moun- you will remember these scenes, the most dangerous conflict zones, tains of the Damned: The War In- these characters, for a long time.” side Kosovo, Blinded by the Sun- McAllester says that the stories light about McAllester’s detention are seasoned by tragedy and violence, in Iraq which was an OPC Book spiced with humor and goodwill and Night, and his best recommendation fortified with “a little more human- for editing a book on food Lessons ity than we can usually slip into our from My Mother’s Kitchen. McAll- newspapers and magazine stories.” ester recently joined the new News- So bring your humor and good will Mud Crabs editor, Matt McAllester week team as Senior Editor/News. and join your fellow OPC members Adam Davidson, founder and as we toast the New Year and listen host of NPR’s Planet Money praises to correspondents McAllester and Inside. the book “These are powerful, inti- Charlie Sennott of GlobalPost and Holbrooke Event Recap...................2 mate stories from some of the best others tell their tales of deprivation war correspondents of our time – the and repression, as well as generosity OPC President’s Letter....................3 kind of stories they tell each other and pleasure. The Book Night will about everyday life in some of the be held on Wednesday, January 4 at Asia Luncheon Recap.....................4 most difficult places on Earth. By Club Quarters, 40 West 45 Street at People..........................................4-7 seducing you with simple tales of 6 p.m. A Reception will follow and food, your defenses are down, you books will be available for purchase New Books......................................8 get lost in a good tale, and then, sud- and for signing. Holbrooke’s Work and Life Celebrated at Asia Society EVENT RECAP: NOVEMBER 28 Richard C. Holbrooke, who died in December 2010, was a pivotal player in U.S. diplomacy for more than 40 years. As a diplomatic troubleshooter he worked for every Democrat president since the late 1960s and oversaw nego- tiations that ended the war in Bosnia. The Obama administration’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pak- istan from February 2009 until his death, Holbrooke helped shape the civilian component of the administration’s Af- ghanistan strategy, deploying more than Lesley Topping 1,000 diplomats and aid workers to help Panel from left: Kati Marton, Roger Cohen, Afghans rebuild their state institutions. Gordon Goldstein and David Rohde. President Obama eulogized Holbrooke as “a towering figure in American foreign Vietnam, and two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist policy,” and “a critical member of my Afghanistan and David Rohde. Pakistan team, and a tireless public servant.” In the wake of NATO’s bombing of a Pakistani mili- On November 29, the OPC and Asia Society New tary outpost the preceding weekend, which threatened to York commemorated the publication of The Unquiet send U.S.-Pakistani relations to a historic low, the pan- American: Richard Holbrooke in the World, a collec- elists perhaps inevitably reflected on how things might tion of essays by friends and colleagues who knew him best, as well as excerpts from Holbrooke’s own tren- have been different had Holbrooke not died suddenly chant writing. The event took off with a panel discussion nearly one year ago. Rohde, for instance, commented moderated by New York Times Op-Ed columnist Roger that Holbrooke’s innate diplomatic instincts enabled him Cohen that included journalist Kati Marton (Holbrooke’s to “get” how America’s relationship with Pakistan has to widow), historian Gordon Goldstein, author of Lessons be founded on respect — a position, he suggested, that in Disaster: McGeorge Bundy and the Path to War in may be lost on other U.S. officials. OVERSEAS PRESS CLUB OF AMERICA • BOARD OF GOVERNORS PRESIDENT SECRETARY Tim Ferguson Toni Reinhold ASSOCIATE BOARD PAST PRESIDENTS David A. Andelman Jane Ciabattari Editor Editor in Charge, MEMBERS EX-OFFICIO Editor Author/Journalist Forbes Asia New York Desk Bill Collins John Corporon World Policy Journal Reuters Director, Public & Allan Dodds Frank ACTIVE BOARD Chrystia Freeland Business Affairs Alexis Gelber FIRST VICE PRESIDENT Ron Allen Global Editor-at-Large Tom Squitieri Ford Motor Company William J. Holstein Marcus Mabry Correspondent Thomson Reuters Freelance Journalist Marshall Loeb Editor at Large NBC News Emma Daly Larry Martz International Herald Tribune Evelyn Leopold Gillian Tett Communications Roy Rowan Rebecca Independent Journalist U.S. Managing Editor Director Leonard Saffir SECOND VICE PRESIDENT Blumenstein United Nations Financial Times Human Rights Watch Larry Smith Michael Serrill Page One Editor Richard B. Stolley Assistant Managing Editor The Wall Street Journal Santiago Lyon Seymour Topping Sarah Lubman Bloomberg Markets Director of Emeritus Partner EXECUTIVE Jonathan Dahl Photography Professor of Brunswick Group DIRECTOR THIRD VICE PRESIDENT Editor-in-Chief Associated Pess International Sonya K. Fry Arlene Getz Smart Money Journalism Abi Wright Editor-in-Charge, Media Nikhil Deogun Abigail Pesta Columbia University Director EDITOR Thomson Reuters Managing Editor Editorial Director Alfred I. duPont- Aimee Vitrak CNBC Women in the World Joel Whitney Columbia University TREASURER Editor Awards OPC Jacqueline Albert- Adam B. Ellick Guernica ISSN-0738-7202 Simon Video and Print Copyright © 2002 U. S. Bureau Chief Journalist Over seas Press Club of Politique Internationale The New York Times America 40 West 45 Street, New York, NY 10036 USA • Phone: (212) 626-9220 • Fax: (212) 626-9210 • Website: opcofamerica.org OPC Bulletin • January 2012 • Page 2 OPC Into the Future With an Award to Include Twitter Posts LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT Forty-four years ago today as I write this, Sey- ing news event. The Tweets can be submitted as an mour Topping, one of our newest Overseas Press adjunct to a submission of traditional reporting, or as Club Board members, and then the foreign editor of a stand-alone submission. Screen grabs of a Twitter The New York Times, took a chance account can be submitted as .jpgs.” on a young Newsday reporter and We will also be adding an award recognizing Best hired him as his news assistant. International Business Reporting Online while ex- His aim was to bring new, young panding the award for best broadcast reporting on the talent onto the foreign staff of The human condition to include online work as well. Times, many of whose members In terms of events, we were privileged to receive on that December day in 1968 had at a luncheon Mikhail Zygar, the 31-year-old found- begun their careers reporting from ing head of TV-Rain, the only truly independent tele- the front lines of World War II. I vision and Internet news operation based in Moscow, was 24 years old then, and Top set David Andelman which for the past year has provided exhilarating, ob- me on a course that has taken me jective and fearless news and commentary, across the through 72 countries and untold adventures over the nine time zones of Russia and through most territo- ensuing decades. ries of the former Soviet Union as well. Mikhail, who My mission, when I took over as president 16 also visited NBC, MSNBC, CBS and CNN and the months ago, was a similar one — to attract new young Committee to Protect Journalists International Press blood to our nearly three-quarter century old organi- Freedoms Awards gala during his week in the United zation and especially to our awards process, as well as States, explained to members of the OPC’s Freedom our events and those whose causes we espouse around of the Press committee the challenges on reporting the world. Above all, my goal is to make the Overseas from a nation that has still not fully escaped its past Press Club as exciting, as vibrant and as relevant to when the Kremlin controlled every media outlet. today’s media universe and the vastly different world Shortly after I joined The Times on December 23, of the overseas correspondent and commentator as it 1968, I recall Top telling me that you could always was the day of its founding.