Three-year-old Denise Pipitone was abducted from Mazara del Vallo, Italy on September 1, 2004, and has never been found. At the time, I was a prosecutor in Marsala, Sicily.
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Sorry, Have I Upset You?
I was a first-year medical student when a stage 3 cancer patient gave me insight into the patient perspective. She described the heartless demeanor of the oncologist who first informed her she had cancer.
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Not Playing the Game: The Bitter Cost of My Youthful Resistance
In my 20 plus years of existence, I have learned two important lessons: (1) if you want to succeed, you have to play the game. (2) I am not good at playing the game. My life started out in the usual way, for a boy from a lower-middle class family in a Pakistani village. I grew up going to the village school and dreaming of joining the army. I never gave too much thought about the purpose of school or an education — I, like many of my classmates, never planned to study past the fifth or sixth grade.
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Humanity
Even the name is sacred. Was it worth it? Making all those animals go extinct? Dinosaurs, Dodos, Rhinoceroses, How did they ever harm you?
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Donkey Voting Down Under
Voting is a fundamental democratic right, allowing citizens to have a say in how their country is governed. But what if it’s mandatory? In Australia, as I discovered when I moved there, the voting process is compulsory, aiming to ensure that every eligible voter has the opportunity to cast their ballot and the opportunity to enjoy hot dogs at the polling booth. Normally called a sausage sizzle in Aussie slang, it becomes democracy sausage come election time.
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The Inside Story of a Renegade — What’s It To Ya?
It all started in Wichita, the largest city in Kansas, bustling with the aircraft of Cessna, Learjet, and Boeing. Founded in 1861 as a free state, Wichita was Native American land named after the Wichita and Kanza tribes. This land had a rich, deep cultural heritage predating colonization. Filled with dewy, mystic plains and sunflowers that dance in the wind, Wichita is my birthplace.
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What a Difference! I Voted In India and the USA
I am a proud voter. I voted in India, and now I vote in the United States. A transition from the East to the West – from the largest democracy to a long-standing democracy. My experience voting in these two countries seems so similar. Electronic voting machines and ballot boxes — covered enough to make it a perfect secret ballot, all set up on school premises. There are similarities in election propaganda, the campaigns, the rallies, and the voters have to be 18 years or older. Yet they are so different. India elects every five years, and the US every four.
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The World Is Voting: What Are You Waiting For?
Whew, 2024 is a whirlwind election year. With over 64 countries voting, few places are untouched by political discussion. Every adult I know in the US has a political opinion and they’re very keen to share. We all have stories of how elections impact us, yet often, those voices just aren’t loud enough!
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Encounter with a Hongkonger at a Hostel in Taiwan
On the rooftop terrace, we talked about traveling; things like finding stylish and affordable accommodation through online searches, riding bicycles around small towns usually missed by annoying crowds of tourists, and avoiding expensive metropolises with barren cultural lives.
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Contours of Language
Sifting through multitudes of strangers, Longing for a familiar face, a smiling acceptance, An existence away from home, Calls for a course correction, isn’t it?
