John Pomfret
John Pomfret
John Pomfretwas an English poet and clergyman...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionJournalist
CountryUnited States of America
assignment difference emphasis facts greater overseas
But the difference is that in an overseas assignment there is an emphasis on the facts but there's also a much greater emphasis on interpretation.
demands type work
The work is a calling. It demands that type of obsession.
affect beacon broader direct interest interests itself national spin
And when they do spin out of control there are important ramifications that affect America, not just its direct national interest but its broader interests as a nation which has thought of itself as a beacon to other nations, of freedom, liberty, democracy, whatever.
bosnian changed help map question
For me the much more significant question is what did the Americans do, if anything, to help the Croatian army, because they are the ones that changed fundamentally the map of Bosnia, not the Bosnian army.
american-scientist china greatest posted summer time
I was posted to China in the summer of 1988, which was the greatest time ever, I think, to have been in China.
american-scientist baggage cultural fact follows
One of the problems that we have as American journalists is that we bring the American cultural baggage with us and we plop it down and it follows us around and that's just a fact of life.
fourteen seized trip
I was fourteen when Kissinger made his secret trip to China, and then there was subsequently Nixon's trip to China, and I was very much seized with an interest in China.
bicycles form main move though time
My main form of transportation at that time was a bicycle, because bicycles could move though the crowd.
job
When you do a job like this you have to like having cold sweat on your back.
believe best equation somebody stop tear
When I see somebody being mistreated, my eyes tear up and I want to stop it. And I believe that the best thing I can do is to write about it, because if I insert myself into the equation it doesn't really do much good, but if I write about it I think it could do more good.
lives midst normal people though willing
But on the other hand, in the midst of the chaos, you find normal people. You find people who are willing to risk their lives to tell you what they saw, even though they have no dog in the fight.
overseas people
Working overseas is more difficult in that it's much more complicated to get people to open their hearts to you and to tell you information.
broader disconnect whereas
Whereas with foreign coverage there's a much broader disconnect between you and your audience.
bosnian chinese experience korean lives overseas prism tend within work
A lot of times when we work overseas we tend to put the experience of someone who lives overseas, a Chinese person or a Korean person or a Bosnian person, within the prism of an American life.