Comments on: In Sierra Leone, things are exactly as normal as they appear http://www.jinamoore.com/2010/07/25/sierra-leone-normal/ Reporter & Producer Thu, 10 May 2012 22:24:27 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Jina Moore http://www.jinamoore.com/2010/07/25/sierra-leone-normal/#comment-1146 Jina Moore Mon, 26 Jul 2010 10:54:48 +0000 http://www.jinamoore.com/?p=1628#comment-1146 That's one thing I hate about the crisis-journalism lens. It automatically disconnects the reporter from the continuity of a place. It does for me, anyway. You plunk down and need to know about why the 70,000 people left their homes or what's going on in rape these days or where all the child soldiers are now, and you don't have time to think about the fact that when the mother had her first kid, the child soldier's 10-years-elder brother, she probably thought they would all live normal lives. I find it hard to stay connected to that. In Sierra Leone, it seems to come up more, maybe because there is a visible alternative to chaos, clear signals -- and a general street gestalt -- that things have turned. So people can talk about the "before" more easily, because they're in the "after." It might also be a language thing; I can small talk in English much more freely than in French, and these are the things you learn in the small talk sometimes, too. Anyway, you've clearly got me thinking... That's one thing I hate about the crisis-journalism lens. It automatically disconnects the reporter from the continuity of a place. It does for me, anyway. You plunk down and need to know about why the 70,000 people left their homes or what's going on in rape these days or where all the child soldiers are now, and you don't have time to think about the fact that when the mother had her first kid, the child soldier's 10-years-elder brother, she probably thought they would all live normal lives. I find it hard to stay connected to that.

In Sierra Leone, it seems to come up more, maybe because there is a visible alternative to chaos, clear signals -- and a general street gestalt -- that things have turned. So people can talk about the "before" more easily, because they're in the "after." It might also be a language thing; I can small talk in English much more freely than in French, and these are the things you learn in the small talk sometimes, too.

Anyway, you've clearly got me thinking...

]]> By: Texas in Africa http://www.jinamoore.com/2010/07/25/sierra-leone-normal/#comment-1140 Texas in Africa Sun, 25 Jul 2010 18:34:54 +0000 http://www.jinamoore.com/?p=1628#comment-1140 I love it. What the Congolese wouldn't give for trash trucks and bank tellers and literate children and all the other markers of normalcy. There are still people alive who remember it, which is what makes the situation so sad. I love it. What the Congolese wouldn't give for trash trucks and bank tellers and literate children and all the other markers of normalcy. There are still people alive who remember it, which is what makes the situation so sad.

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