We're moving from Saudi to Turkey

My new neighbor: Istanbul's Hagia Sofia. (Image by qyphon via Flickr)

Dear readers,

I’m sorry about my infrequent posting lately. Below are two reasons why, and by way of continuing apology, a link to my latest piece — a feature in the Brown Alumni Magazine about being alone in a room in Saudi Arabia with a young woman who wants to attend an ivy league university.

1. As I wrote with some emotion last month, my beloved dad Al Deuel passed away April 13 after a brief battle with cancer. We are all still crushed. And among other things, his passing came just days after my wife and I left Riyadh, which we no longer call home.

2. Instead, Kelly McEvers and I are most likely moving to Istanbul, where I will be based as she looks to rotate into Iraq as National Public Radio’s new Baghdad correspondent.

So over the next weeks and months, my focus will begin shifting from Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and the Gulf, to Turkey, Iraq, and the greater Middle East. If you have any advice, questions, or avenues of research you’d like Kelly or I to pursue, please don’t be shy.

For now, here’s a sample of that BAM piece about interviewing young women in Saudi for undergraduate admission to Brown — and also an appeal for your continued patience. Everything’s different now.

Filed under: Iraq, Islam, Kelly McEvers, Middle East, NPR, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, World, Writing, Istanbul, Middle East, National Public Radio, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Yemen

Reporting Live From the Saudi-Yemen Border

A prince surveys the front, where more than 100 Saudi soldiers have died. (Image by AFP/Getty Images via Daylife)

Straight from the field:

Dying camel in road. Sprawling tent city. Shops closed. There actually was a war here. Victory march likely.

Kelly McEvers is on a Saudi military C130 right now, headed for the country’s southern border with Yemen, where fighting has raged off and on for several months. En route to a base near the Saudi city of Jizan, she’s traveling with an undisclosed number of other journalists, who have all been invited by Saudi officials to get an on-the-ground update on the military situation. This is in the wake, yesterday, of a reported peace deal on offer from Houthi rebel leader Abdul Malik. More than 100 Saudi soldiers have reportedly died in fighting so far.

She’ll be text messaging me all day, and I’ll be posting live updates here, and on her Twitter feed @kellymcevers.

UPDATES, from newest to oldest:

– Junket over. At least we can finally write about this war.

– Correction: Oasis of cars belongs to soldiers, not refugees

– Khaled bin Sultan: #Saudi will only agree to cease fire if Houthis stop sending snipers over the border and return 6 Saudi prisoners

– Prince to review troops, spread good news.

– ‘They did not withdraw. We destroyed them.’ Then why are we hearing shells and gunfire?

– Journo in heels just fainted. It’s hot up here. And still not clear if the war is over.

– Gunner nests dug in side of mountain. Flag at summit suggests happy speech imminent.

– Jackknifing up mountain on newly cut road in heart of combat zone.

– Dying camel in road. Sprawling tent city. Oasis of cars that once belonged to refugees. Shops closed. There actually was a war here. Victory march likely.

– Now in convoy of sand-covered Nissans on way to #Saudi southern command HQ

– Landed in Jizan, herded into carpeted splendor. War zone? Maybe.

– Today should yield #Saudi response to #Houthi truce offer

– On a fancy C130. Apparently “five star” means “tricked out in the 80s.” Heading to #Saudi-#Yemen border.

UDPATE: And here‘s the story she filed for NPR.

Filed under: Al Qaeda, Islam, Journalism, Kelly McEvers, Media, Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Shiites, Sunnis, War, Yemen, Al Qaeda, Middle East, Military, Saudi Arabia, Yemen

What you don't know about Saudi's Yemen war

Saudi military might. (Image by Al Jazeera English via Flickr)

Look: You probably don’t understand Saudi Arabia. I barely do, and I live here. And that war with rebels in Yemen?

1. It’s not a proxy war with Iran. (Yet.)

2. It’s not evidence that Hezbollah is schooling rebels in Yemen. (Not intentionally, at least.)

3. It’s not an effort to root out “Al Qaeda.” (Riyadh is not D.C.)

Saudi Arabia is a wonderfully bizarre and surprising place. People drink Starbucks here, kids use iPhones, and the information minister has Facebook friends. Geopolitically, the big guys trade words with Tom Friedman and the military has expensive planes and big bombs. And when Saudi goes to war, just like when anyone does, there are refugees.

But the camps that house Saudi refugees, as my wife Kelly McEvers reports this morning on Morning Edition, aren’t what you’d expect.

Check out her NPR story. It turns out a Saudi refugee camp has air-conditioned tents, three hot squares, a freshly laid parking lot for residents’ SUVs, and pens for their goats.

—

Follow me on Twitter.

Filed under: Kelly McEvers, NPR, Saudi Arabia, War, World, Yemen, Iran, Middle East, Proxy war, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Yemen

What happens when 2.5 million Muslims gather in one place?

The scene at hajj, which this year could be a swine flu petri dish. (Image by AFP/Getty Images via Daylife)

I gave you the inside scoop earlier this week on my wife’s trip to western Saudi Arabia for NPR. Among other things, Kelly was tracking down the impact of swine flu on hajj, the annual pilgrimage by Muslims to two of Islam’s holiest sites.

Check out the story, which ran last night on All Things Considered.

Anxious health officials in Saudi Arabia say that for the first time in recorded history, a global pandemic could affect the hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. The H1N1 virus is a major concern for authorities in Saudi Arabia, who are gearing up to host some 2.5 million Muslim pilgrims from 160 countries later this month.

Muslims from around the world have been coming to Saudi Arabia for hajj for more than a millennium. It’s one of the five pillars of Islam. Every Muslim who is able is supposed to make the journey to Mecca at least once in a lifetime.

Note the two “standups,” when Kelly speaks directly and casually into the tape as she’s on the scene, first at the Jeddah airport’s Hajj terminal and later at a gas station, where she talks to pilgrims from Bangladesh. She couldn’t have done any of it without Power Horse.

via Flu Threat Looms As Mecca Readies For Pilgrims : NPR.

Filed under: Hajj, Health, Islam, Kelly McEvers, Saudi Arabia, Swine influenza, Hajj, Health, Islam, Kelly McEvers, Saudi Arabia, Swine influenza