“And, where are you from?” a young Bosnian woman asks me while hiking up a steep mountain. “The Netherlands,” I reply. Before I can say anything more she smiles and thanks me for taking the time to come to Bosnia. “It means the world to me! I lost my dad and two uncles during these […]
I dragged my battered suitcase through the deserted arrivals hall of Schiphol airport in the early morning of July 9, 2017. It was caked with orange-red earth and a dollar sign sketched on in white chalk was faintly visible, indicating it had passed inspection at the Juba airport two weeks prior. My colleague Anton and […]
There’s a war (in Eritrea) “Do you know about Eritrea?” someone in the group asks the others, unexpectedly, over dinner. Silence. Fifteen pairs of eyes full of question marks. “It’s a part of Ethiopia that was annexed (sic). So you see, in the same way we don’t know about Eritrea, people abroad don’t know about […]
Yes, that’s right. Beer as resistance. The Palestinian Taybeh Beer is the first micro-beer brewery in the Middle East. Taybeh Beer seeks to be a message of peace in Israeli-occupied territory by stimulating the local economy. I spoke with Nadim Khoury, since 1994 one of the proud founders of the Taybeh brewery. Notwithstanding the many […]
The soldier at the checkpoint signals our bus driver to stop. I can feel the tension in the bus rising. A big sloppy guy in military fatigues barges onto the bus, looks around and demands our identity cards. I am intimidated by his piercing eyes and my fellow passengers’ utter silence. While I hastily give […]
Her name is Maria. At sixty-nine, one of the village’s veterans but with the energy of a newborn. I enjoyed her breakfasts and lunches a good many times, but what I enjoyed most of all were our conversations. One day after I finished my yucca and maize soup, I enthusiastically brought up the subject of […]
“Do you think that women have the time to participate in a peace process? They have so much work to do, taking care of the household, the children, going to work in the fields. Often, they are the head of the household or they have to supplement their husband’s income by going out to sell […]
“And by the way, I think anger is a good thing. This country is in a crisis. And if you’re fighting to save this country, if you’re fighting to take this country back, it’s not going to be sunshine and patriots. It’s going to be people who want to fight.” – Stephen Bannon during a […]
She was in a hurry when we spoke to her. “Five minutes please!”, she said, because she needed to attend to her patients. In September, we were in Eastern Ukraine to look at the impact of explosive weapons on health care. The Avdiivka hospital was one of the locations we visited, and the nurse was […]
“There are some people who think you have to hate them in order to shoot them. I don’t think you do. It’s just business.” James Mattis “We probably haven’t seen the variety and diversity of threats to Americans safety and well-being and our national security in a long, long time,” he said. “Some have said […]