Daniel J. Gerstle | Writing
Daniel J. Gerstle, Gerstle, Humanitarian, Humanitarian Bazaar, media, multimedia, creative media, Cincinnati, Berlin, Sarajevo, Mogadishu, Kabul, Paris
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PUBLISHED HIGHLIGHTS

2024  |  Untold Magazine

Humanitarian Bazaar Magazine  |  3ayin Sudan Media

Sudan:  Time Running Out for Medical Teams Saving Lives in Besieged El Fasher. By Daniel J. Gerstle with Mohamed Zakaria and Eilaf Mohamed. How ObGyn specialists transformed their modest maternity institute into the city’s last war hospital while directly targeted. September 2024…

2021  |  SyriaUntold

A decade of attacks on Syria’s hospitals, and the medical workers who learned to survive. By Daniel J. Gerstle. A new report details a decade of attacks on Syrian medical facilities. Could it help the next generation of doctors and nurses? 6 April 2021…

2016  |  The New Humanitarian

Elderly Fare Worst in Europe’s Forgotten Conflict: Ukraine. By Daniel J. Gerstle. Avdiivka, Ukraine. “A bullet flew in right here,” explains Nadyezhda Semyonovna, 65, to her local pastor, Yura, in the dining room of her home near Avdiivka, eastern Ukraine. “I was wearing pants like this and it went through here,” she says, pointing to the front of her thigh where it sliced through the cloth…

2014  |  The Atlantic

Surviving Syria’s Civil War with Heavy Metal. By Daniel J. Gerstle. Armed with a cellphone and borrowed camera, a young Syrian seeks refuge in a rockumentary. On a scorching August day in 2011, in the city of Homs, the Syrian conflict nearly swallowed Monzer Darwish… 

2013  |  Rolling Stone (Middle East)

Syria: Rock in a Hard Place. How Bashar Haroun is striving to keep metal alive in Syria. By Daniel J. Gerstle. Photos by Hazem Abdul Raouf and Haneen B Nasser. … “C’mon, Syria!” Bashar Haroun, the 28-year-old singer of heavy-metal band Reaction, calls out from the stage to the restless crowd at Al Zahraa Cinema in the Syrian coastal city of Lattakia. “We’ll show the world that even in this crisis we still believe in metal…”

2012  |  Rolling Stone (Middle East)

Somalia: The Rise of Waayaha Cusub. By Daniel J. Gerstle. March 2012. Somalia’s hip hop renegades are claiming their country’s culture back from militant extremists. Shiine Akhyaar, the outspoken lead singer and manager of the Somali hip hop collective, Waayaha Cusub, loves to share his political opinions, but not his personal life…

2011  |  Rolling Stone (Middle East)

Afghanistan: Amplifiers in Kabul. By Daniel J. Gerstle. Photos by David Gill. December 2011. District Unknown are at the forefront of an Afghan psychedelic and heavy metal scene that is pioneering a new underground renaissance. We’re cutting through the black, dusty night searching for a rock party in a secret underground bunker in Kabul, Afghanistan. Crossing the intersection past a police checkpoint and heading down an empty street, we hear a low, throbbing growl emanate from the basement of an apartment building. The bass and drums softly pulsating in the shadows of a silent war zone are enough to drop blood pressure, hasten respiration, and spark the bitter taste of adrenaline…

2007  |  The Guardian

Somalia: Aid Workers Under Attack. By Daniel J. Gerstle. October 2007. My research team and I were near the end of an arduous four-month venture across the north-eastern African nation of Somalia when we came upon an armed man who wanted to kill me. He had wild eyes – bloodshot and rubbed raw – on an otherwise emotionless face. A thick, aggressive Somali man in his forties, he stirred up dust and an entourage as he approached us…

OTHER PUBLISHED WRITING

2024

 

  • Untold Magazine & Humanitarian Bazaar Magazine  |  Sudan: Trial of the Janjawid. Darfur’s Long Road to Justice. By Daniel J. Gerstle. With ICFJ & Gates Foundation Fellowship on Health Innovation Journalism.
  • Humanitarian Bazaar Magazine  |  Sudan: A Wounded Doctor’s Escape from El Fasher. By Eilaf Mohamed, MD; interview essay edited by Daniel J. Gerstle. With ICFJ & Gates Foundation Fellowship on Health Innovation Journalism.
  • Humanitarian Bazaar Magazine  |  Sudan: Butterflies in the Darkness. By Afrah Hussein, MD; interview essayedited by Daniel J. Gerstle. With ICFJ & Gates Foundation Fellowship on Health Innovation Journalism.
  • Humanitarian Bazaar Magazine   |  Sudan: El Fasher’s Top Surgeon Calls for an End to Attacks on Hospitals. Dr. Izzaldine Asow shares what happened when rebels attacked the city’s main hospital. By Izzaldine Asow, MD; interview and editing by Daniel J. Gerstle. With ICFJ & Gates Foundation Fellowship on Health Innovation Journalism.
  • Humanitarian Bazaar Magazine  |  Afghanistan:  Valley of Chameleons. How women rights activists were betrayed by neighbors and foreigners alike, and how they may win their country back. By Daniel J. Gerstle.

 

2016

 

 

2015

 

 

2014

 

 

 

2013

 

 

 

2012

 

 

 

2011

 

 

 

2010

 

  • 2010  |  New America Media  |  Afghanistan Can’t Afford a Future Without Women at the Table, February.
  • 2010  |  UN Dispatch  |  Somalia: Aid Agencies United Despite Rumored Disagreement, December.
  • 2010  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  Bosnia: The Value of White Lies, February.
  • 2010  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  Iraq: Halabja’s Public Health Nightmare [as Travis Reiser], February.
  • 2010  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  Iraq: Conjuring Peace in the Tigris Valley, February.
  • 2010  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  Afghanistan: Providing Aid Safely [as Joe Tsali], February.
  • 2010  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  Somalia: Five Bombers [as Joe Tsali], February.
  • 2010  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  Somalia: War Scars, February.
  • 2010  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  Cincinnati’s Grandmothers Learn to Fight Crime [with Ruth Gerstle], February.
  • 2010  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  Interview: Alsarah: Possessed by the Jinn: Women and Music in Sudan, December.
  • 2010  |  UN Dispatch  |  Wikileaks and Criminal Intrigue in Chechnya, December.
  • 2010  |  UN Dispatch  |  Will the UN Enter Talks with Alshabaab in Somalia? December.
  • 2010  |  UN Dispatch  |  Will There Be Accountability for War Crimes in Sri Lanka? December.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Civil war, floods and poverty in Pakistan, November.
  • 2010  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  Croatia: Goodbye Twice, November.
  • 2010  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  Interview: Blurred Vision: Fighting Ayatollah Thought Control, October.
  • 2010  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  Pumpkin Dishes of Afghanistan, October.
  • 2010  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  How to Cook a Camel, October.
  • 2010  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  The Small Victories of a War Zone Aid Worker, October.
  • 2010  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  Navigating the Sudanese Political Labyrinth, October.
  • 2010  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  Interview: Remembering Home with Alt Rock Band, Wussy, October.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Why is a Soldier’s Trauma Distinct from Others? September.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Webbing the Webbed-Nots in Crisis and Development, September.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Walker for Sudan, Septembet.
  • 2010  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  Hundertwasser’s Spirals for Peace, September.
  • 2010  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  Triage & Consequences in Abyei, Sudan, September.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Humanitarian Aid Workers Desert to Be Celebrated, Not Forgotten, August.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Five Ways “President” Gingrich Would Weaken National Security, August.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Taliban and Family Execute Youth Who Eloped for Love, August.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Cambodian Genocide: Would You Seek Revenge? August.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Iraq: One Person’s Liberation Might Be Another’s Nightmare, August.
  • 2010  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  Interview: Soundscapes with Alternative Rock Band, The Boxer Rebellion, August.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  How the US Congress is Divided on War, July.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Cluster Bomb Ban Begins Worldwide, US Still Hasn’t Signed, July.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Enemies: Why Does the Second Generation Sometimes Hit Harder? July.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Military Sexual Trauma: Americans Cope with a Fierce Kind of Friendly Fire, July.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Papuans Come Out Strong Against Indonesia with Indigenous History Book, July.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  A Tricky Gamble in the Afghan War Plan, July.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Invisible Children’s Uganda Program Loses a Pioneer, July.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Somalia’s Uganda Connection Blows Up, July.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  On Trial for Enslaving Children to Kill, July.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Afghanistan’s Guillotine Syndrome, July.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Rimbaud on War, and the Mad Blinding Light, July.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Will Petraeus Do Better for Afghanistan Than Iraq? July.
  • 2010  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  Overcoming the Heisenberg Relativity Principle in War Journalism and Aid, July.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Protecting Human Rights Defenders from Assassination, June.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Why Does the Pakistani Taliban Want to Draw in the US? June.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Are Western and Asian Countries Re-Colonizing Africa? June.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Somalia is No More a Failed State Than the United States, June.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  To Win Against Sexual Slavery, Fight Demand; June.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Punk Cabaret on War, Peace, and Social Satire; June.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Pakistan’s Puzzling Relationship with the Taliban; June.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  How to Democratize War and Peace Media, June.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Were Nuclear Weapons Inevitable? June.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Kyrgyzstan Calling for Help to Quell Ethnic Violence, June.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Kurdish World: Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back, June.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Pentagon Over-Spending finally United Some Conservatives and Liberals, June.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Is Pyongyang Farming a Burmese Bomb? June.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Some Good News About the Gaza Flotilla Crisis? June.
  • 2010  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  Interview: Putting Cameras in the Hands of War Survivors in Sierra Leone, with Banker White, June.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Who is a Veteran? May.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Distinguishing Protectors from Warmongers with Henry Rollins, May.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Celebrate the United Kingdom’s Ratification of the Cluster Bomb Ban, May.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  The Healing Power of Music Culture in Crisis Zones, May.
  • 2010  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  Interview: Henry Rollins: Punk Legend on Veterans, Music, and War, May.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Why Are Many Vets Celebrated While Others Remain Homeless or Deported? April.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Nepal’s Peace Ministry Celebrates Post-War Milestone, April.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  How an Air Strike Hits the Wrong House, April.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Pacific Islanders Debate How to End Colonialism, April.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Stroll Along the Vietnam Veteran’s Virtual Wall, April.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Rally Behind Somalia’s Musicians as Shabab Calls for Ban, April.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  West Papua Activists Take on the International Crisis Group, April.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  The Fierce Urgency of Sunday’s Sudanese Elections, April.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Why Kyrgyzstan’s Coup Could Spell Trouble for the U.S., April.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Wikileaks Iraq Video: Are Soldiers Worth More Than Civilians? April.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Afghanistan: Digging Out the Bullets, April.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Armageddon Postponed: The Nuclear Reduction Talks, April.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Overzealous Security Linked to Terror Retaliations Yet Again, April.
  • 2010  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  Interview: Nadim Mahmud: Where There is No Ambulance There’s Text, April.
  • 2010  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  Interview Roundtable: Rising Up from Drowning Homelands in the Pacific, April.
  • 2010  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  Yula Be’eri & the Punks from Falafelstan, April.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Applaud the Movement to Ban Cluster Bombs, March.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Azerbaijan, It’s Time to Take the Deal on Karabakh, March.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Afghanistan Should Have a Council of Grandmothers, March.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Does Military Gender Bias Lead to Higher Health Risks? March.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Can We All Stop Overusing the Term PTSD? March.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  What Happened to Post-War Punk? March.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Iraq War’s 7th Anniversary: Could Saddam Have Done Worse? March.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Uganda’s LRA Threatens South Sudan Election, March.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Afghans Sacrificing War Crimes Justice for Peace? March.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Melanesia’s More Than a War Mini-Series, March.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Why Have Christians Led Anti-Gay Pogroms Before the Islamic World? March.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Somali Shabab Starving Its Own Communities, March.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Colombia Starts the Clock on President Uribe, March.
  • 2010  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  Interview: Patrick Meier: Mapping an Earthquake Crisis in Real Time, March.
  • 2010  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  An Irreverent Guide to Crisis Zone Slang and Euphemism, March.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Chechnya’s Security Brain Drain, February.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Foreign Aid Reform: Enhance Disaster Preparedness and Peacebuilding, February.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Could an Iranian Counter-Revolution Go Velvet? February.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Killing Vets Softly with Our Apathy, February.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Applause for Guinea, but Troubles Not Over Yet, February.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Forty-Two Percent of Somalis Crushed by Disaster, February.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Dagestan: Where to From Here? February.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Haitian Voodoo Predicted Quake? February.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Niger New Coup Follows Old Coup, February.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  In Somalia, Too Many Get Caught in Crossfire of US Policy, February.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Killing Civilians is No Way to Win a War, February.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Tehran’s Love Affair with the Bomb, February.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Delicate Future for LGBT Rights in Crisis Zones, February.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Peacebuilding vs. Al Qaeda, February.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Exit Charlie Wilson, Godfather of Afghan Mujahedin, February.
  • 2010  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  Afghanistan: Love in the Time of the Taliban, February.
  • 2010  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  Bosnia: Motivations of a Killer, February.
  • 2010  |  New America Media  |  Afghanistan Can’t Afford a Future Without Women at the Table, February.
  • 2010  |  New America Media  |  Afghan Summit Highlights Risky Paradoxes of War, February.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  What Global Citizens Need to Know About This Week’s Afghan Summit, January.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  UN’s Plan to Curb Somali Piracy, with a Twist, January.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Afghan Women Ask Anti-War Left to Turn Right, January.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Reuniting and Replenishing the Two Afghanistans, January.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Downing Street’s Afghan Agenda, January.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Congo Body Count Statistics Taken Out of Context, January.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Getting Ready for a London Conference on Afghanistan, January.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Are Peacetime Air Strikes morally and Strategically Justified? January.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Superkit for Opposing Landmines & Cluster Bombs, January.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Taliban Child Soldiers Lose Everything But Their Innocence, January.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Walt Whitman Tends to the Wounded, January.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Kashmir Shoot-Out reminds How War Can Spread, January.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Somalia’s Thorny Food Conundru Faces New Twist, January.
  • 2010  |  Change.org  |  Israel Permits Exports from Gaza for First Time Since 2007, January.2010-01. Change.org  |  Bosnian Vet Process War Through Poetry, January.

 

2009

 

  • 2009  |  Change.org  |  Philippines: Holidays Beside a Smoking Volcano, December.
  • 2009  |  Change.org  |  Israel & Palestine: When is it Okay to Ban People from a Road Based on Religion? December.
  • 2009 |  Change.org  |  Top Badass War & Peace Songs of the Decade.
  • 2009 |  Change.org  |  Russia and Georgia Work Through Irreconcilable Differences.
  • 2009  |  Change.org  |  Women 14% of US Armed Forces and 5% of Homeless Vet Population.
  • 2009  |  Change.org  |  Sleeper Tragedies: Kala Azar, Trypanosomiasis, Chagas, and Buruli.
  • 2009  |  Change.org  |  How to Advocate for Change on a US Foreign Ops Bill.
  • 2009  |  Change.org  |  Your Starter Kit for Getting Involved in US Foreign Aid Reform.
  • 2009  |  Change.org  |  Holy Plutonium: US and Russia on Nuclear Arms Reduction.
  • 2009  |  Change.org  |  The Yemeni Civil War as Viewed by a Veteran Aid Worker.
  • 2009  |  Change.org  |  There Should Be a Failblog for Peace and Humanitarianism.
  • 2009  |  Change.org  |  Central Africans Suffering at Mercy of Neighboring Countries.
  • 2009  |  Change.org  |  US Must Act Against Uganda’s Anti-Gay Legislation to Save Lives.
  • 2009  |  Change.org  |  Craft of Emergency Nutrition Evolving Amid Obstacles.
  • 2009  |  Change.org  |  Sudan Still One Camel away from All Out Pandemonium.
  • 2009  |  Change.org  |  Rwanda First (War-Affected) Country in World Free of Landmines.
  • 2009  |  Change.org  |  Survey: What’s Your Priority for Foreign Aid Reform?
  • 2009  |  Change.org  |  Can USAID Nom Rajiv Shah Lead Progressive Foreign Aid…?
  • 2009  |  Change.org  |  Somalia’s Greatest Hits: The Positive, Peaceful Side of the African Horn.
  • 2009  |  Change.org  |  Live from Washington DC: Blogging from Congressional Hearings on Aid, Afghanistan, and Sudan.
  • 2009  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  Wine and Walnut Chicken in Tbilisi.
  • 2009  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  Natalia Estemirova and the Protection of Human Rights in Southern Russia.
  • 2009  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  Chechnya & Karabakh: Feasting and Storytelling Across the Caucasus.
  • 2009  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  Road to Chechnya: Coping with War Through Music.
  • 2009  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  Sudan: Cutting Through the Fog of War in Khartoum, September.
  • 2009  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  Medusa’s Drum (aka Crisis Zone Soundtrack: Coping with Trauma Through Music), August.
  • 2009  |  Islam Monthly / Islamica  |  Somalia: Political Islam in a Troubled Nation.
  • 2009  |  Change.org  |  Many, many other posts…
  • 2009  |  Humanitarian Bazaar  |  Many other stories

 

2008

 

 

2007

 

 

2006

 

 

2005

 

 

2004

 

  • 2004  |  Eurasianet  |  Fighting Hunger & Heroin on the Afghan-Tajik Border.
  • 2004  |  Journal of International Affairs  |  The Pamir Paradox. Water Insecurity & Hunger at the Source of Central Asia’s Rivers, Issue 57/2, Fall.
  • 2004  |  Eurasianet  |  Nagorno-Karabakh’s Deep Divide/ with Photo Essay.

 

2000

 

  • 2000  |  World Surface  |  Montenegrin Sunrise.
  • 2000  |  World Surface  |  Death in Morogoro.
  • 2000  |  World Surface  |  The Zambian Malt Liquor Adventure.

 

1999

 

  • 1999  |  International Rescue Committee  |  A Bosnian War Quick Reference.
  • And much more…

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