TIME.com
29 March 2010

Philippine welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao could soon fight American rival Floyd Mayweather for $50 million—the biggest prize in boxing history. But first he’s got to beat Roy Chiongbian. Roy who? Join Pacquiao as he campaigns for a seat in the Philippine Congress.

General Santos City, in the southern Philippines, is famous for tuna. But the real big fish is Manny Pacquiao, who grew up around here. He is scheduled to arrive tomorrow, on what a Filipino colleague claims (improbably) will be the boxing champ’s latest toy: a private jet. The victory parade will take him to nearby [...]

MANILA — Reporting from the Philippines is like falling down a rabbit hole. My quest to interview boxing god Manny Pacquiao is less than 24 hours old and already things are getting surreal. He arrived at dawn and ate breakfast at a Makati hotel. So did his hundred-strong entourage, which this morning included reporters, motorcycle [...]

Tomorrow I’m flying to the Philippines where, if all goes to plan, I’ll interview welterweight boxing champ Manny Pacquiao about his latest bid for political office. But first the flight. It is said that Suvarnabhumi, Bangkok’s main international airport, has the world’s tallest air-traffic control tower. This seems a strange thing to brag about. How [...]

Covering the ongoing anti-government red-shirt demonstration in Bangkok is a challenge. It’s not just the heat, although that’s bad enough. It’s 35 C right now, just two degrees shy of the temperature of the blood being drawn from protesters to throw at Government House today. Bangkok-based red-shirts can (and do) return home each evening, to bathe [...]

According to my dictionary, the non-musical definition of fugue is “a state or period of loss of awareness of one’s identity, often coupled with flight from one’s usual environment, associated with certain forms of hysteria and epilepsy.” Don’t know about the epilepsy bit, but with tens of thousands of red-shirted supporters of ousted prime minister [...]

I’ve just finished Maggie Helwig‘s novel Between Mountains. Its protagonist is a traumatized Canadian war reporter called Daniel, whose life intertwines with a war criminal and a court translator. Liverpool-born Helwig is a fine writer. While her book hasn’t made my (mental) list of Best Books About Journalists, it contains plenty of wisdom about the [...]

Above my desk in Bangkok I have that quote by Mark Twain: “A journalist is a reporter out of a job.” I put it there to remind me that reporting—seeking truths, extracting facts, bearing witness—is the beating heart of my profession. It also helps explain why it took me so long—years, in fact—to start this [...]