FictionThatMatters.org

The Soccer War
by Ryszard Kapuscinski
Translated from the Polish by William Brand
Vintage International, 1992

Travels with Herodotus
by Ryszard Kapuscinski
Translated from the Polish by Klara Glowczewska
Knopf, 2007

This pair of books by the late Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski brims with the creativity and insight of great fiction. The Soccer War details the explorations of Poland’s sole reporter with a ‘third world’ beat, from African independence movements to Cold War flashpoints in Central America. Travels with Herodotus is Kapuscinski’s last work and is more of a meandering memoir about the shaping of a journalist who met dozens of world leaders and thrust himself into the middle of conflicts under the drudge of the pen.

Read the full review here.

What happens when human rights discourse enters political speech? Is it robbed of its meaning?

An article recently posted on the BBC chronicles the difficulty in measuring human rights violations – even when the alleged perpetrator releases ‘official’ statistics. The unfolding conflict in the South Ossetia region of Georgia is one such example. Russia has announced that there are 1,500 casualties, with no meaningful break-down of the numbers.

“The problem here,” the local Human Rights Watch Director is recorded as stating, “is that when Russia puts out a figure like that it does two things – it distracts attention from where there are violations and from the real scale of what is happening.”

Even when investigations are non-fictional, the results can be far from clear.

View the article here.

–Deji Olukotun