Sunday, March 15, 2009

R.I.P. KATE PUZEY : the Benin Blogger


Video from myfoxatlanta

The power of International Newsvideo usually surpasses that of
traditional reporting via printed media. A direct example of this
is the report filed by an off-air reporter named Kirit Radia who
blogs for ABC News. His blog dated March 12th has been
slow to find its way to major news publications, probably due to
the fact that the incident he reported occurred in Badjoude,
Benin,
situated in a remote part of West Africa. The incident
involves the death of Catherine 'Kate' Puzey, a young
Peace Corps volunteer stationed there as an English teacher
at a rural public school.


March 13, 2009 5:51 PM

Radia_2 ABC News' Kirit Radia Reports:

Today the Peace Corps identified the
victim of this week's tragedy in west Africa
as 24-year-old Catherine "Kate" Puzey
of Cumming, Ga.

Puzey was found dead outside her home Thursday in a
small village in the western African nation of Benin. There
is still no official word on the circumstances of her death,
though officials say it appears she had been murdered.
~from '
Political Radar', ABC news Blog


As a Blogger, I immediately sought to read the last Blog post of
this 24-year-old girl, in order to get a glimpse into the life of a
young American female who would sacrifice the 'American Dream'
to survive instead in a hut without running water and electricity.


What I found was a Blogpost dated October 2008, entitled,
'What A Summer !' Fittingly immortalized as one of the last
published words of a smart, beautiful, fun-loving, selfless and
genuine young woman.


In my opinion, the entire Blog now has the makings of a novel,
screenplay and film, so colorful and strong are her words -
and pictures.

Because she wished to record the details of her life with her
family, friends and neighbors,

the photos she uploaded still exist at her albums on
Google's Picasaweb. I have uploaded only a few
pics from those albums because they offer revealing insights
into her life in Benin, but there are thousands more

in the collection which hopefully will remain available for all to
view and cherish -unless someone decides to deprive us of her
legacy. I personally feel she realized the great amount of personal
dedication, sacrifice and responsibility involved in her situation
and that she chose to leave her mark on the world with her words,
deeds and photos.

Catch the web albums while you can, and also read Kate Puzey's
final Blog posting at http://beinginbenin.blogspot.com/

Deep gratitude and kudos to Boing Boing's illustrious blogger and
all-round knockout Xeni Jardin for first bringing
this story to the world via her Flickr photo.

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