From Francesca Borri, explaining why freelancers in war zones are paid so miserably:
The reason for the $70 per piece isn’t that there isn’t any money, because there is always money for a piece on Berlusconi’s girlfriends. The true reason is that you ask for $100 and somebody else is ready to do it for $70. It’s the fiercest competition. Like Beatriz, who today pointed me in the wrong direction so she would be the only one to cover the demonstration, and I found myself amid the snipers as a result of her deception. Just to cover a demonstration, like hundreds of others.
How on earth can there be so many people who are eager—eager!—to spend years living in the middle of a brutal civil war for no more than a tiny pittance? It’s not a surprise that there are people willing to do this. But so many?
