Same Old Enemies

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Owen Bennett Jones introduces reportage, analysis and wit from journalists and writers around the world. In this edition, we meet people and organisations still confronting the challenges and the hostilities of years past. Nick Sturdee travels to Northern Shan State in Myanmar, to meet members of an ethnic-minority militia, the Ta'ang National Liberation Army or TNLA, who say their villages are still suffering oppression and violence committed by the national army, and are still committed to a long-haul struggle for freedom. In Somalia and Somaliland, Mary Harper sees the toll being taken by drought and threatening famine on families trying to survive the loss of crops and livestock, while avoiding the ruthless politics of aid. May Day might not be what it used to be - the most flamboyant marches and displays of workers' power are past - but Will Grant saw in Cuba that at least one socialist government has something to celebrate, despite the loss of Fidel Castro. And on the slopes of Val Cenis in France, Elizabeth Hotson didn't just learn about the horrifying costs of medical rescue for skiers: she also heard Cold War-era gossip, and stories of present-day censorship and threats to press freedom, at an international journalists' ski meet. Photo: A soldier of the TNLA emerges from the forest around Mantong township, in Myanmar's northern Shan state.(Ye Aung Thu/AFP/Getty Images)