Pulitzer Center Update

This Week in Review: Peace Looks a Lot Like War

Image by Trevor Snapp. South Sudan, 2012.

Although the moment was significant and rightfully celebrated, we never expected that South Sudan’s birth as an independent nation last July would settle matters in that troubled region. It hasn’t. For nearly a year now, there have been skirmishes along the border and in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan, which remains part of Sudan. The Sudanese government has indiscriminately bombed both rebel militias and civilians. Thousands have fled across the border to South Sudan. For GlobalPost, Pulitzer Center grantee Trevor Snapp documents the plight of this new group of refugees on the brink of starvation. The situation is deteriorating and could become a major humanitarian crisis, but thus far the international community has shown little interest.

Trevor and reporter Alan Boswell are developing an iPad book on the emergence of South Sudan as Africa’s newest nation, and have launched a fundraising campaign through emphas.is. There are only 28 days left to contribute. The book will be published by the Pulitzer Center and Triple Canopy later this year.

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The Japanese salaryman always worked hard—often too hard and for too many hours—but his reward was guaranteed employment and a secure safety net in retirement. No more. Despite a habit of intense loyalty to their employers, workers in Japan have become as disposable as their counterparts in the US. Pulitzer Center grantee Shiho Fukada reports on the lives of these disposable workers. She documents the impact of the new economic reality on temporary employees who live in internet cafes while trying to piece together a livelihood, on female college graduates forced to take work as bar girls, and on the salarymen so desperate to retain their jobs they sometimes work themselves to death.

Until next week,

Tom Hundley
Senior Editor