International Affairs

Philadelphia Inquirer Africa correspondent Robert Rosenthal was arrested and tortured while reporting in Uganda. He describes the experience to Fresh Air host Terry Gross.

Chilean-American writer Ariel Dorfman has recently published a number of articles critical of his home country's repressive government.

The Nobel Prize-winning writer's formative experiences were informed by war in Eastern Europe, an itinerant childhood, and American novels and films. He has lived in the United States since 1960.

Anand Nagar, which translates into the City of Joy, is one of the most densely-populated slums in Calcutta. In order to learn more about how people survive in dire poverty, French writer Dominique LaPierre and his wife lived in a hovel alongside the neighborhood's residents. His book about the experience, called The City of Joy, has just been released in paperback.

White anti-apartheid activist Helen Suzman identifies ways in which recent reforms passed by the South African government have led to some desegregation. She believes that the recent sanctions advocated by the Reagan administration will have little impact on her home country's racist policies.

After decades in Lebanon, missionary Ben Weir was kidnapped by a jihadi group. His wife, Carol Weir, worked tirelessly to secure his release. They've cowritten a memoir about the ordeal, called Hostage Bound, Hostage Free.

Journalist Raymond Bonner's new book examines how the United States government turned a blind eye to Ferdinand Marcos' rise to power and declaration of martial law in the Philippines. His account draws from myriad interviews and documents obtained through FOIA requests.

Nien Cheng and her husband were educated abroad and lived a comfortable, bourgeois life before China's Cultural Revolution. Though Cheng faced persecution, interrogation, and imprisonment, she was mostly able to maintain her lifestyle--and her loyalty to her country. She now lives in Washington, D.C.

Alexander Slepak was able to leave the Soviet Union and emigrate to the United States. His parents, both prominent Jewish activists, continue to be denied the right to leave the country.

Donald Woods, who worked as a reporter in South Africa. While covering the racial unrest there, he befriended Black activist Steve Biko. He was later placed under house arrest when he pressed authorities to investigate Biko's death in prison. A movie based on his work and his friendship with Steve Biko will be released in November.

Language Commentator Geoffrey Nunberg discusses the centennial of Esperanto, a movement devoted to establishing a world language.

Journalist John Conroy. Conroy lived in a poor Catholic neighborhood in violence-torn Belfast, Northern Ireland. He recorded stories of the life there in his book Belfast Diary.

Salvadoran poet Claribel Alegria. She has lived in exile for many years. She now lives in Nicaragua. Her best-known book is titled Flowers From the Volcano.

Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes. He has written many novels, is currently teaching at Harvard, once served as Mexico's ambassador to France and used to be considered an "undesirable alien" and was denied a visa by the U.S. government.

Polish writer Ryszard Kapuscinski. His writing lies somewhere between history and journalism. He was a foreign correspondent for the Polish Press Agency. His books in English include The Emperor, about Ethiopian emperor Haille Selassie, Shah of Shah, about the Shah of Iran, and Another Day of Life, about Angola.

Philippine journalist Ninotchka Rosca. For years, she worked as a journalist in the Philippines. After imprisonment by the Marcos regime, she went into political exile in the United States. She returned to the Philippines just as Marcos was losing power. She recalls that period in a book titled Endgame.

Father Robert Drinan. For ten years, he was a Congressman from Massachusetts. He left his seat when the Pope ordered all priests to leave elected office. He now teaches law at Georgetown University and has recently completed a book on human rights.

David Aaron, former deputy director of the National Security Council. His experience as an arms negotiator in the Carter administration provides the background for State Scarlet, his novel about terrorism and nuclear weapons.

Dr. Robert Thurman, the first American to be ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist monk. He later returned to the United States and established The Institute for Buddhist Studies at the University of Massachusetts. He visited Tibet in the fall of 1987 and is now setting up a Tibet House in New York City.

Peter Kornbluh, an information analyst with the National Security Archive in Washington, D.C. Kornbluh is the co-editor of Low Intensity Warfare, an analysis of the numerous counter-insurgency operations the United States is engaged in around the world. Low Intensity Warfare looks at the future of American war-fighting capabilities as they are reoriented toward unconventional conflicts in the Third World.