Dispatches with Hollie McKay

*We recommend the raw interview audio as the best way to experience this dispatch. (approx. 40 min) Hello and welcome back to another dispatches from Hollie McKay. Hollie recently went to Ukraine and is now back in the United States. Today we're going to talk about what that experience was like, while she was there, and what it was like when she left Kiev and came back to the US. So, good morning,...

“But everyone cannot be there, and that is why photographers go there - to show them, to reach out and grab them and make them stop what they are doing and pay attention to what is going on - to create pictures powerful enough to overcome the diluting effects of the mass media and shake people out of their indifference – to protest and by the strength of that protest to make others protest.” James...

Hello and welcome back to another edition of dispatches from Ukraine with Hollie McKay. Today, Hollie is going to be answering some questions that were posted on the Internet. How are you today, Hollie? Hi, I'm doing well. How are you? Quite good. Our first block of questions is from people that are asking about the morale of Ukrainians. What's the general feeling among men who have been forbidden...

Hello and welcome to another dispatch from Ukraine with Hollie McKay. Today, we're going to be asking Hollie some questions and that have come from people on the Internet. We are going to get some answers from the source herself. How are you doing today, Hollie? I'm not doing too bad, just day-by-day, sleeplessness. Yeah, I bet you know considering where you are in Kyiv. Alright, so here's the fir...

Welcome to another dispatch, this time from Ukraine by Hollie McKay. Holly you were in Ukraine a couple of weeks ago left and came back to the United States and now you're back in in Kyiv. Tell us a little bit about that journey in terms of how you got back there. Yeah Dennis, so I spent a couple of weeks here. Obviously, doing a lot of reporting, going to Donbass. There was a lot of anticipation...

“Surely if men are sufficient masters of things to build a howitzer they ought to know better than to destroy each other with it.” — Stewart Gore-Browne, from Arras, 1916. ADVOCATES PLEAD TO END ORGAN HARVESTING, DISAPPEARANCES OF MINORITIES IN CHINA The controversial Beijing Winter Olympics has just ended, and survivors and human rights advocates of the host country’s allegedly oppressive policie...

I WAS IN AFGHANISTAN AND I MET THE PEOPLE BIDEN IS TAKING MONEY FROM NOW. IT’S INHUMANE As snow blankets much of Afghanistan, and small children roam without as much as a warm coat and non-punctured shoes, the crisis that the United States and her allies have walked away from is as horrific as it is heartbreaking. Millions of ordinary Afghans stood by and supported US military personnel in a war t...

“Don’t be mad at the mirror if you are ugly.” -          Russian President Vladimir Putin While there is much concern and conjecturing regarding fears of an “imminent” Russian invasion into Ukraine, it is important to highlight that there are many unknowns – and Ukrainians themselves are living life as usual, without mass panic and hysteria. The government in Kyiv is taking a much more measured to...

“Communism is killing chicken to get the eggs.” ― Anastasia Bitkova INSIDE EASTERN UKRAINE FRONTLINE TOWNS WHERE THE HUMAN COST OF WAR IS LAID TO BARE It’s a long and lonely 500-mile drive from the capital Kyiv: swerving along pothole-laden roads flanked by snow-white plains that melt seamlessly into the pale skies and winding through tiny villages with thatched-roof cottages and streets named “Pe...

OK. Here we go. Another dispatch, this time from Ukraine, with Hollie McKay. Hollie, where are you right now? I'm currently in the capital of Ukraine, which is Kyiv. Geez, well that's a little bit different from Kabul. How long have you been there? I can't remember because I I've been in Albania for the past week before this. Then I came I guess a week ago. This is right in the middle of a period...

“...the wind in Ukraina blows very hard and cold at this moment. But it will not always be so. And where there is love, there is always enough warmth for the human soul to thrive.” ― Marina Lewycka, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian This week coming to you from Ukraine… Despite the drama-filled headlines and undeniable tension, Ukrainians are no strangers to conflict and contention with nei...

“In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.” –  Sun Tzu, Chinese General/Military Strategist/Philosopher The Swedish oil company Lundin Energy's executives have been under investigation for war crimes since 2010. Last November, Swedish prosecutors finally brought charges against the company's chairman and CEO for "complicity in war crimes committed by the Sudanese army and its allies in sou...

“Life has no meaning. Each of us has meaning and we bring it to life. It is a waste to be asking the question when you are the answer.” ― Joseph Campbell TALIBAN BUILDING ITS 'AIR FORCE,' CLAIMS TO HAVE REPAIRED HELICOPTERS BLISTERED BY AMERICANS Months on, and the military side of Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA) remains a strangely silent place, littered with remnants left behin...

No“Memories are worse than bullets.” ― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind More than the military components of war, which we journalists often refer to as the "bang bang," what interests me are the human stories that follow every victim, every survivor, every person caught in the crossfire of conflict. I have kept countless 99 cent notebooks filled with incredible stories, words of wisdom,...

“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.” ― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre It has taken a decade, but this week finally brought some semblance of justice for millions of embattled Syrians who have lost those they loved most in the world at the hands of the Assad regime. This past week, Syrian colonel Anwar Raslan was convicted by a German court of crime...

“Man is not what he thinks he is, he is what he hides.” ― André Malraux, French novelist and art theorist As I was tracking down the families of Americans who were allegedly fighting for designated terrorist groups in Syria almost seven years ago, I came across an intriguing case: a San Diego man who had left the beachside city to fight for Al-Shabaab in East Africa. His name was Jehad Serwan Most...

“I didn't write to be famous; I wrote to keep a record.” -           Gloria Emerson, war correspondent 1929-2004 The budding and innocent always bear the brunt of war, its height and its aftermath. People often ask me what they can do to help children caught in the crossfire of conflict, who to support and what can be done. Years ago, while still living in Los Angeles, I had the great fortune of m...

“There is a cyclone fence between ourselves and the slaughter and behind it we hover in a calm protected world like netted fish, exactly like netted fish. It is either the beginning or the end of the world, and the choice is ourselves or nothing.” ― Carolyn Forché, The Country Between Us For my final Substack of 2021, I want to shed light on some incredible stories of survival I had the honor of w...

“There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.” - The Bridge of San Luis Rey COULD IT HAPPEN HERE? CIVIL WAR SURVIVORS RECOUNT LESSONS LEARNED Over my years as a war reporter and war crimes investigator, I am often left in awe of the individuals I meet who have survived the most unfathomable things humans do to each other. I’ve sa...

Welcome to another “Dispatches from Afghanistan” with Hollie McKay. Hollie is back in the US. This is a bit of a wrap up and I'm going to ask a few questions having to do with both the experience perspective on Afghanistan at this point. And, about being a war reporter in general. You ready for this one, Hollie? Let's do it. What is the biggest thing the American public believes about the war in A...

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience which is bitterest.” Confucius It is always a strange challenge to re-adjust to the “real world” after months away. In many ways, working out in the field is a simpler existence than the lives we lead in our western cocoons rife will bills and responsibilit...

Welcome to another episode of Dispatches from Afghanistan with Hollie McKay. This is a special one. We are welcoming Hollie back to the United States after four months in Afghanistan. We’re going to find out today how that experience went. First, welcome back Hollie. Thank you, thanks, thanks for your support. You've been here about a week now? Yeah, about that, yep. So, you know first question is...

“Of all the money that ever I had, I spent it in good company. And all the harm I've ever done, alas, it was to none but me.” -          The High Kings I feel tremendously guilty knowing I can walk away when so many of those suffering cannot. My life is no more valuable than theirs, I just happened to be born in different geographical coordinates, no doing of my own. As I always say, I have been t...

This is part two of questions and answers with Hollie McKay from Kabul, Afghanistan. r.d.olson What are some of the financial and economic hardships the Afghanistan civilians are currently experiencing? Well, that's a really loaded question. I think in every single sector there is just a huge economic and humanitarian crisis. One of the most flagrant is the health situation. In the health sector,...

Gaunt babies lay piled against each other in an assortment of cots and incubators, barely making a sound. The overstuffed wards are strangely quiet as a handful of medical staff with leathered faces and tired eyes float like ghosts from one ward to the next. There is perhaps no worse feeling in the world than standing helplessly in a Children’s Hospital, staring into the empty eyes of the young an...