A Jordanian youth reflects on the tangible and intangible objects, the memories and values that he carries with him each day. A pupil’s backpack. (EPA/Pablo Gianinazzi) I carry my black Hawaii Y5 phone. It’s not the newest technology, but it satisfies me. I...
I’m a New Yorker studying in France. I now realize a president doesn’t define a country and there are constructive ways to talk about politics. (Courtesy of GetDrawings) Since arriving in France over six months ago, I’ve had the same conversation many times...
Everyone prayed I would be a boy. I was born a baby girl. My photographs show how the genders “girl” and “boy” can coexist as they interact. Two figures standing in two doorways in front of a multicolored cyclorama, one figure bathed in green...
Journalists practice a dangerous craft and now are accused of peddling fake news. With the world facing annihilation, is it worth plying that trade? Photographer Shah Marai, among several Afghan journalists killed in a suicide bombing, is buried in Afghanistan, 30...
The world needs safe spaces to protect us against the oppression of the privileged. Think of Orwell’s “Animal Farm” — we have a right to be deaf! Implausible though it may seem, a few months ago I found myself in the most heartless of places....
Chinese students flaunting luxury cars and designer clothes fuel a stereotype that ignores the harsh reality for many compatriots on U.S. campuses. Chinese high school exchange students act out skits during their orientation near Ann Arbor, Michigan, 29 August 2017...
I spent the past year in Beijing. The Chinese language has taught me that change is inevitable — and life will yield new loves for me. “The Orchard Pavilian Gathering” (Wikimedia Commons) This past year I lived in China as a 17-year-old American high...
Smartphones can be great learning tools, but they can also be addictive, interfere with learning and contribute to bullying. I know — I teach high school. Students send text messages, Manila, Philippines, 10 June 2008 (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) I walk into a...
I covered the Vietnam War as a rookie foreign correspondent in 1966 and 1967. There was death and destruction for sure, but it was not all war. Robert Hart, War zone D, Tay Ninh province, South Vietnam, August 1967(photo courtesy of the author) News-Decoder...
The 1960s were a zeitgeist of anti-establishment values and alternative philosophies, an age of counter-culture, hippies and yippies. I was there. Hippies greet the sunrise in San Francisco, California, 6 October 1967 (AP Photo) News-Decoder correspondents have...