In praise of the foreign reporter

This blog will often put the way towards great journalism and there is a great piece of international reporting in the New Statesman courtesy of Tristan McConnell who reports from the Somalian capital of Mogadishu.

It begins

After dark, the dull thud of mortars and the staccato popping of machine guns come more frequently. Sometimes the explosions make it hard to sleep, so I lie awake counting, learning to read the Mogadishu soundscape: one . . . two-three . . . four. Pauses follow sequences of explosions like Morse code, each bullet and mortar landing somewhere, ending or ruining a life.