The trip to Angola was an indelible journey. It wasn’t the first time I had traveled to Africa, but this trip was different. I was there as a journalist. I was there on a mission. It wasn’t about me taking … Read more
Day at our house in the northeastern part of Bangladesh would break with a rally of sounds. First, it was Azan, the call to prayer from the mosque. Then came my dad’s recitation from the Holy Quran, tinkling sounds from … Read more
My parents grew up in the 1960s and 1970s in East Harlem, New York City, when it was especially precarious for people living in that neighborhood. A national recession and a local fiscal crisis pushed the city to the brink … Read more
“I am at home everywhere, and nowhere. I am never a stranger and I never quite belong.” That quote by Belgian writer Georges Simenon hung above my 10th grade English teacher’s desk when I was in high school in Dubai, … Read more
When I was a little kid, there was a game I used to play for hours and hours. To my parents and siblings, it looked like I was wandering around our front yard in Maine, muttering to myself, but I … Read more
“We probably shouldn’t hire you,” the co-bureau chief said near the end of our interview. I couldn’t argue as she went through the reasons — I was new to the continent and South Africa and didn’t speak any of the … Read more
In November of 2017, I made the unpopular decision to move back home to Venezuela. Most people are going in the other direction. More than 5.6 million Venezuelans have left the country, including most of my own family, … Read more
“Why do I do what I do?” they asked. So, I went to the source of all wisdom to contemplate my place in the world: folk singer Todd Snider, the barefoot poet laureate of me. A man once said that … Read more
I never set out to cover wars. What I wanted was to report overseas, understand foreign lands, explore how the world worked. But my timing was off — or perhaps it was just right. It was the summer of 2001 … Read more
As a kid I loved Superman. The undisputed good guy, he saved the world. Superhero and comic book movies often showcase easy-to-understand stakes, protagonists, and antagonists, making villains and heroes obvious. Depending on how you view the world, for many … Read more
