HuffPost — May 21, 2017 Inspired by his oath of honesty when enlisting in the Navy, 21-year-old recruit Shaun Dougherty decided to be truthful about what had happened to him as a child. He finally opened up to his parents on his first Christmas break from the boot camp in 1991. Dougherty told them about …
Two Years After The Earthquake, These Nepali Schoolchildren Are Still Without A Classroom
HuffPost — May 2, 2017 — Sometimes hope knows no boundaries or walls. NUWAKOT — Sita Paney teaches 3rd grade students at Shubha Adarsha Modern Academy in Nuwakot in central Nepal. Every morning, her students, 8-year-olds Simran, Prayush and Krisha, gather with 250 others in the school yard. The four-classroom school defies the word “modern” …
A Pinch of Spice
GASTRONOMY WORLD WAKES UP TO MAGICAL INGREDIENTS — INCLUDING A GOOD OLD TURKISH CHILI. Skylife — March 2017 Recent developments in many countries around the world may have left everyone wondering whether or not we are nearing the end of globalization and a return to isolation. But in true fashion of the zeitgeist’s mantra of …
Kyoto in Cherry Blossom Season
“The perfect blossom is a rare thing. You could spend your life looking for one, and it would not be a wasted life.” Skylife — April 2017 In a scene from the movie The Last Samurai, the character of Lord Moritsugu Katsumoto, the samurai leader, walks in a temple garden surrounded by sakura (cherry blossoms) …
Progressive Hindus Declare Queens Temple The First Sanctuary Of Its Kind In U.S.
Huffington Post — March 30, 2017 The movement is focused on fighting racism, casteism and Islamophobia and promoting LGBTQ rights. SADHANA.ORG“The right-wing Hindus have done a fantastic job in organizing. Why can’t we?” NEW YORK — Revelation came to Sunita Viswanath one summer morning six years ago, as she set down to read the newspapers …
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf: The War Is Between Extremists And Moderates Of All Religions, Not Just Islam
Huffington Post — Feb. 22, 2017 To fight radical religious views, Muslims in the U.S. must create an “American Islam,” says the former leader of a planned mosque near ground zero. NEW YORK — There’s a Qur’anic scripture on one of the walls in Imam Feisal Rauf’s office, showing Arabic letters stylized in the shape …
In An Era of Polarization, The Women’s March Was A Reassuring Reminder That Democracy Can Work
Huffington Post — Jan. 25, 2017 It’s easy to feel pessimistic these days, but on Saturday I saw Americans fighting for the same values women in every country, including my own, fight for. THE WASHINGTON POST VIA GETTY IMAGES It may just be one march, but it demonstrated democracy at its finest. WASHINGTON ― As my …
The Istanbul Nightclub Attack Finally United A Divided Country
Huffington Post — Jan. 5, 2017 Perhaps there’s something Turkey and the West can learn from this tragedy: “the opposite of life is not death but indifference.” YASIN AKGUL VIA GETTY IMAGES After a violent year, Turks had hoped for normalcy. Instead, a nightclub attack rang in 2017. The routine is now eerily familiar for Turkish …
The Assassination Of The Russian Ambassador Was An Anomaly Even For Grief-Stricken Turkey
Huffington Post — Dec. 23, 2016 Regardless of who did it or why, there is only one loser. AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES The Russian ambassador’s death is complicated and troubling for the future course of events in Turkey. Even by the standards of recent tragedies experienced by my country, Monday’s assassination of Andrei Karlov, the Russian ambassador to …
Cloaked in Secrecy: How the Saudis’ $110 Million Gift to UN Counterterrorism Is Being Spent
PassBlue — Nov. 21, 2016 NEW YORK — The United Nations Counter-Terrorism Center was set up in 2011 with money from Saudi Arabia to combat terrorism worldwide. Some experts, however, now question the center’s ability to eliminate terrorist threats. There are also questions about whether the money that the Saudis donated, a whopping $110 million, is being spent …
