Monday, January 05, 2009

Dispatches from the Edge - Anderson Cooper

Dispatches From the Edge - Anderson Cooper (2006)
Because I have no cable tv, I am not subjected to the many broadcasts and ongoing news programs that frequent tv. I have heard of Anderson Cooper, and seen a few news reports that he has done. Basically I knew little of him or his life, so reading this memoir felt fresh to me. Haunted by the early death of his father, and the later suicide of his brother at a young age.

In this memoir, he describes being in Somalia, Iraq, Bosnia, Sri Lanka after the Tsunami, and then in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. In this book he gives an insight much deeper than the 10 second soundbites given to us on news shows, and lets us know that he does care about the abandoned people of the world. He wonders how the US officials could stand and congratulate themselves on all of their hard work after Katrina, while people were homeless and starving and bodies were left to rot in the streets. Hurrah for the smart journalist, one who questions what is happening around them, although I wonder if the security of wealth allows you the luxury of not worrying about losing your job.

So it is an interesting 3/5, if only downgraded due to the fact that there seemed to be a lot that wasn't written, still hidden and unexplored.

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