Costel’s Reviews > On All Fronts: The Education of a Journalist > Status Update
Costel
is on page 6 of 336
One man had stopped me in the street as I walked past with my camera. He spoke some English and so I stopped to record an interview.
“Please,” he implored, “this is the real Syria.” His voice quivered with emotion. “If you come you will see real bodies. They are not stones, they are not toys. They are real bodies.”
— Apr 01, 2026 01:18AM
“Please,” he implored, “this is the real Syria.” His voice quivered with emotion. “If you come you will see real bodies. They are not stones, they are not toys. They are real bodies.”
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Costel’s Previous Updates
Costel
is on page 288 of 336
Was anyone going to care about this story, I wondered. Did people have any empathy left? Yet another corner of the world was witnessing unspeakable cruelty.
— Apr 10, 2026 12:09AM
Costel
is on page 247 of 336
"I can't wait to be in Jannah (paradise)," Israfil wrote to me one night. "Just walking around this beautiful garden and eating delicious fruit."
"Is that how you imagine paradise?" I asked.
"It's described quite clearly in the Quran."
— Apr 09, 2026 05:22AM
"Is that how you imagine paradise?" I asked.
"It's described quite clearly in the Quran."
Costel
is on page 243 of 336
"Imagine you're drowning, that you're about to die, and you're desperately looking for anyone to help you, but there's nobody there," he said. "But then you see someone holding out their hand. Maybe you don't like the look of that person, but it's your only chance to survive. So you take their hand."
— Apr 09, 2026 04:33AM
Costel
is on page 229 of 336
I had spent days watching 60 Minutes interviews. Morley Safer. Steve Kroft. Bob Simon. Ed Bradley. Mike Wallace. Lesley Stahl. Each of them had their own inimitable style. It was a joy to study them.
— Apr 09, 2026 03:47AM
Costel
is on page 228 of 336
I learned that Ayman had eight children, four of them daughters. He lived in a town near Aleppo called Tal Rifa'at, and his biggest fear was that he would soon have to marry off his eldest daughter, just fifteen years old, because he could not afford to feed them all.
— Apr 09, 2026 03:42AM
Costel
is on page 220 of 336
I remember one Syrian woman telling me that if you can hear the jets, you're OK. If you're about to get killed you don't hear anything.
— Apr 09, 2026 03:33AM
Costel
is on page 191 of 336
"Don't underestimate yourself. You're no babe in the woods. You remind me of that chick from Game of Thrones, Khaleesi, mother of dragons."
— Apr 09, 2026 03:32AM
Costel
is on page 188 of 336
Covering war is a bit like being a trauma surgeon in ER, though of course we are not saving lives. But when things get bloody, you have to take a deep breath and immerse yourself completely in your job, switching off any human response to the horror of what's happening.
— Apr 09, 2026 03:31AM
Costel
is on page 160 of 336
She looked down at her tea as she stirred the spoon around and around. I knew at once that I had upset her, that by suggesting the impossible I had only reminded her that the world she so wanted to see was not really open to her, that her lot had already been cast.
— Apr 03, 2026 11:29PM
Costel
is on page 52 of 336
"Clarissa, I need to ask you. Can you help me get my family to the West?"
It was a question I would be asked dozens and dozens of times as a reporter working in some of the most dangerous places in the world. And it would not get any easier to answer.
— Apr 02, 2026 01:19AM
It was a question I would be asked dozens and dozens of times as a reporter working in some of the most dangerous places in the world. And it would not get any easier to answer.
