I learnt how to avoid getting killed by my mistakes. There were many. And some very narrow misses. If I’d had something like this book to flick through at night, it might have helped, just a little.
And finally, because attitudes, cultural values and even national borders change with time – dangerous places become top holiday destinations, just look at Vietnam – do send your own experiences, ideas and suggestions to me at howtoavoidbeing@gmail.com, or follow my Twitter feed, @Rosiepelican, for updates.
Contributors/
Without the help and advice of the people below and dozens of anonymous voices, this book would have been impossible. I have leaned heavily on these contributors in order to make this book stand up. Thank you, all of you, for being so generous and thoughtful with your experiences.
Hoda Abdel-Hamid, correspondent for Al Jazeera English. A three-time Emmy Award winner, Hoda has covered stories from Saudi to Sarajevo, Morocco and Pakistan, and won an award from the Monte Carlo Film Festival for her documentary Koran and Kalashnikovs. She spent years making brave journalism with her team on the front line in Iraq, a month of it with me.
Tim Albone, journalist, documentary-maker and author of Out of the Ashes (Virgin Books, 2011), his account of following the progress of the Afghan cricket team around the world for a year in the lead-up to the World Cup.
Shadi Alkasim, my former colleague at the Baghdad Bulletin, worked with the United Nations Mission in Sudan and then Liberia as a radio producer and journalist until moving to China. He has also covered the war in Lebanon and has worked with www.aliveinbaghdad.org.
Helen Asquith is a doctor who trained at Oxford University and University College London. Her particular interest is public health, and she has travelled widely in her study of it, including to southern Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
Qais Azimy, Afghan journalist and Al Jazeera English producer in Kabul.
Samantha Bolton, former world head of press and campaigns for Médecins Sans Frontières.
James Brabazon, journalist and documentary film-maker, author of My Friend the Mercenary (Canongate Books, 2010).
James Brandon, former colleague at the Baghdad Bulletin, now head of research at the Quilliam Foundation, a counter-terrorism think-tank.
Julius Cavendish, Kabul correspondent for the Independent newspaper.
Chris Cobb-Smith, former artillery commando officer in the British Army, now a media security expert, founder of Chiron Resources, which provides specialist security support to news and documentary teams reporting from war zones; also carries out investigations into the deaths of journalists in the field, as well as examining human rights abuses and war crimes allegations.
Tom Coghlan, defence correspondent for The Times newspaper, formerly based in Kabul as a freelance reporter for various British newspapers, including The Times, the Daily Telegraph and the Independent.
Stefanie Dekker, producer and reporter for Al Jazeera English.
Marc DuBois, executive director of Médecins Sans Frontières – UK.
Jane Dutton, senior presenter for Al Jazeera English, formerly at CNN as a presenter and ‘Hotspots’ girl, and at the BBC and ETV.
Alina Gracheva, camerawoman for Al Jazeera English, but she has been a television journalist since the collapse of the Soviet Union, covering the Chechen wars, the fall of Mabutu Sese Seko in the former Zaire and the funeral of Ahmad Shah Masoud in Afghanistan. She won an Emmy for her work as part of the team covering the fall of the Taliban in Kabul in 2001, and was nominated for an Emmy for ‘Aneta’s Choice’, a report about a Beslan mother.
Carl Hallam, doctor, formerly in the British Royal Marines, now a volunteer for Médecins Sans Frontières.
Jonny Harris, captain, Light Dragoon Regiment, British Army.
Sayed Hashim, captain, No. 1 Kandak S2, 3/205 Atal Brigade, Afghan National Army.
Ralph Hassall, founder of the Baghdad Bulletin newspaper in Iraq. On its closure, he became involved in disaster management on an international scale, training governments and emergency services in key skills for post-conflict. His main area of expertise is landmines, and at the time of writing he was the manager for the UNDP Mine Action Capacity Development programme in southern Sudan.
Caroline Hawley, formerly the main BBC correspondent in Iraq, was named Broadcaster of the Year by the London Press Club in 2006. She is now based in London as a special correspondent for the BBC.
Patrick Hennessey, former British army officer and author of The Junior Officers’ Reading Club (Allen Lane, 2009).
Chris Helgren, editor-in-charge at the Reuters UK pictures bureau; was formerly chief photographer for them in Baghdad and Rome.
Mohammed Hersi, former pirate off the coast of Somalia, 2001–9.
Tom Hudson, former lawyer and soldier, now legal counsel for a Middle East security company that provides services in ‘hostile’ environments.
Kamal Hyder, journalist who has spent many years working in the tribal lands of Pakistan and Afghanistan with CNN and now Al Jazeera English.
Sebastian Junger, journalist and author, most famously of The Perfect Storm (Norton, 1997) and most recently of War (Fourth Estate, 2010). In 2009 he made his first film, the award-winning feature Restrepo, based on one year working with a US platoon in Afghanistan’s ‘deadliest valley’.
Wadah Khanfar has worked for Al Jazeera since its inception, progressing from cameraman, correspondent and Baghdad bureau chief to director-general, and seeing almost every war along the way. In 2009 Forbes magazine listed him as one of the most powerful people in the world.
Zeina Khodr began her career with local radio in Beirut, working through the civil war there. She then moved to Dubai TV, Al Arabiya, Al Jazeera Arabic and now Al Jazeera English. In 1999 she won best feature of the year for CNN’s World Report.
Donald Kirk, Korea correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, has also written a number of books on Southeast Asia and Korea, most recently Korea Betrayed (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).
Marc Laban, co-founder of AsiaWorks Television, an independent production company.
Mohammad Tahir Luddin, Afghan freelance journalist.
Ian Mackinnon, freelance journalist, now based in Bangkok, where he was formerly the Guardian newspaper’s Southeast Asia correspondent.