Book Review: No Ordinary Assignment: A Memoir by Jane Ferguson; Part Two
As I read of Jane Ferguson’s adventures in war-torn countries in the Middle East, I was reminded of my own travels in the area. During a narrow window of time in the 1960s and 1970s, it was possible to travel by road from Europe to the Indian Subcontinent through Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. This became known as the Hippie Trail, or the Overland Trail, and many young travelers took this route in search of drugs, thrills, and cheap living in exotic locales. Numerous tour buses decked out in psychedelic colors made the journey; however, when I followed this path, I hitchhiked with European truckers and sometimes local people as far as Kandahar, Afghanistan, before switching to public transportation. These countries and their peoples were fascinating but frightening. I felt most in danger in Pakistan, with Afghanistan as a close second, but overall during that period those regions welcomed budget tourists. There were even so-called Freak Streets, areas with hostels, restaurants, and cafes specifically designed for hip young travelers, in Kandahar and Kabul in Afghanistan. This route became effectively closed, though, in the late 1970s when the Shah of Iran was overthrown, and decades later, when Ferguson visited these countries, they were hotbeds of turmoil and war.
Early on, in Afghanistan, Ferguson realized that her motivation had been initially misplaced. She writes that “this obsession with being a war reporter was bullshit. It was a total distraction from the real work, which was capturing experiences of war.” Instead of a self-centered effort to prove herself, she came to understand that “the stories of the war were those belonging to the millions of people around me living through it.” She writes that sometimes it was difficult not to feel guilt as she captured the pain of others in images. The only way to maintain balance, she asserts, was to “be as compassionate and respectful as possible. To do that, you must allow yourself to be vulnerable,” and “by sending as much love to the person you are filming as you can. People recognize real empathy.”
On one occasion she was smuggled into Syria all alone to report on the insurgency efforts at a time when the government was capturing and torturing to death all dissidents and journalists. She writes: “I knew I was there because I was disposable and brave – my two greatest assets so far at this point in my career.” However, the importance of what she was accomplishing – letting the world know about the atrocities that were happening there – made the risk worthwhile. By the time she was ready to leave, the government had tightened its security, and getting out was even more dangerous than getting in. Concerning the situation at one checkpoint she says: “This was the first and only time in my career since that I felt quite certain I would die.” She carried the fear of that encounter with her for months, but it did not deter her from her chosen path.
What gives the book added depth is that Ferguson does not only write of her adventures in the field; she also shares the toll the constant travel and dangers take on her own psyche and her relationships with others. For a time she went on sabbatical, convalescing in an apartment in Beirut, Lebanon, but after a time she felt the call of her destiny and desired to get back out into the field. She also points out that despite the acclaim she received for her incomparable journalistic efforts, she was often low on finances and struggled with temptations to take on less risky reporting work because the money was better. Eventually, though, she would realize that war reporting was her calling, and she would return to the work for which she felt best suited.
I can relate to this memoir on so many levels. I have traveled for much of my life, and my wife and I raised our children overseas in Greece. In a sense I feel isolated, cast aside even, in my present situation in an apartment in my hometown of Seattle. I long to be back out on the road. I really do. At present, however, I have no resources for doing so. In the meantime, I feel a sense of kinship with Ferguson and great inspiration from her efforts to do her best in the work she feels compelled to do, and I highly recommend this book.
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