Telegraphe Congolais: Clippings

Thursday, January 20, 2005

Here, click here, in the IHT, is my article about my experience in Congo. It's a little hackeneyed but so am I. My first published article!

At 5:47 PM, Solomon2 said...: I read the article. Some comments and questions:

1) I think it would have been more powerful had the third paragraph ("Here was hope") been the first.

2) Who wrote the headline -- you or the editor?

3) Onesphore Sematumba strikes me as a rather wise fellow.

4) Your existence in Congo seemed quite superficial, and lacked necessary depth. Perhaps you would like to try a page from the late Danny Pearl's book and look for an in-depth story on something small to give your readers a perspective not your own that we can relate to on a personal level.

Maybe that way you could sell more stories while building up your own experiences to the satisfaction of everybody.

5) I am reminded of the account of a one-handed Belgian shopkeeper/relief worker who was awarded a medal for his work in Congo by Eisenhower fifty years ago. An abridged account was published in Reader's Digest back then. Maybe you'll want to find and read it...a truer perspective, I guess, on the Hutu/Tutsi situation than Joseph Conrad.

6)Keep trying to get published more, maybe look beyond the IHT. Have you tried the Washington Times?