A few months ago, I traveled to a place I’d never visited before: Mbale, Uganda. I wasn’t there to marvel at the vastness of Lake Victoria or spend a day at a safari park, though I wished I’d had time to see mountain gorillas. I was there to Meet Noor, a girl I met 11 years …
Continue reading “What I learned from a girl in Iraq: Human being first, journalist second”
A few months ago, my friend and colleague Lateef Mungin died quite suddenly. This morning, more shocking news awaited me. CNN photojournalist Sarmad Qaseera passed away. He was 42. Here’s the thing. Like Lateef, Sarmad was always smiling, always cracking jokes. His joy in life was infectious. I never heard him get bitter like so …
Continue reading “Courage in journalism, Part II: RIP, Habibi”
I met Mike when sectarian strife exploded in Baghdad in 2006. That was not his real name, of course, but it was what he went by in his job as a translator for American soldiers. Mike and I spent several evenings chatting at a coffee shop on the vast Camp Liberty complex. He was a smart …
I felt small standing amid the Roman ruins in Jerash. I marvel at the building accomplishments of people who lived so long ago; they intended to make structures last. How many slaves gave their lives in constructing magnificence not even an earthquake could fully take away? I think of how I’d stood in this exact …
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