A Reporter on Covering Famine in Somalia

Sometimes, it is a reporter’s personal connection to a place or a person that makes the story a reality to those reading it, though they may be far disconnected from the events on the ground. That is certainly the sense one gets from reading Jeffrey Gettleman’s latest piece on the devastating famine that has ravaged the Horn of Africa. In today’s paper, The New York Times  East Africa bureau chief writes about his struggle to reconcile covering one of the worst humanitarian disasters of all time as a reporter with his desire to help the masses he’s watched suffer. Gettleman talks about how the situation in Somalia has gotten so out of control, and why foreign aid groups are not doing enough.