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COMPASS MAGAZINE, May 1999. VOL. 6 ISSUE 5

The view from Taiwan

By Mia Shanley

One of the best parts of my job working at a newspaper is selecting photographs to use in the next day's paper. I treasure this 15 minutes in my day. It is like having my own daily subscription to Life magazine.
The images come across wire services from every corner of the world -- an outback in Africa, a piazza in Italy, a highway in Los Angeles, a picket line in South Korea. Living in Taiwan as a foreigner, I hunger for this moment in the day when I can be comforted by an image from home or dream of a place that I have yet to see.
I savor this time in the day, when I can sit next to the computer terminal and, without words, without sound, watch the world flash by instantaneously.
It is amazing to think that one can walk through the emotions of the world of one day in just 15 minutes. The photographs never miss a beat and they catch every human emotion imaginable.
I can have a flash of the Great Wayne Gretzky waving goodbye to his loyal fans, and then, with the click of a button, watch Dr. Jack Kevorkian wave to his supporters in defeat.
The photos pass from victory to death in an instant. They show passion and indifference, heroes and villains and regular people doing regular things:
Small children, surrounding a dinner table in an AIDS hospital with sores all over their faces.
A Hollywood personality getting a gold star on the Walk of Fame as the fans watch on.
A rebel in Indonesia, swinging his enemy's ear in front of the camera, his comrades laughing and cheering him on.
The pope, kneeling down and kissing someone's bare feet on Easter.
An athlete's face as she crosses the finish line.
A woman hugging her child as they walk away from their home in Kosovo, their destinations uncertain.
Mr. Bill Gates holding yet another press conference.
The Spice Girls in those clever outfits, dancing in another corner of the world.
There are moments of brilliance and moments of stupidity. It is my window from Taiwan and it is better than CNN.
No voices direct me. There are just a series of images packed with emotions that are telling enough of the human spirit without words, without sound.
Sometimes I walk away from the 15 minutes inspired. Sometimes I walk away nearly in tears. The photographs contain the ironies of the day crammed into a single package -- my own daily subscription to the diversities of Life.

-- The Compass writer is also an editor at the China News