First Person
A Slow Death for Algeria’s Free Press
The Hirak briefly extended the realm of the possible for the whole country. After it failed, a space like Radio M, annoying as it might have seemed at times, continued to broaden the horizon, at least for journalists, at least for a while. It showed us that it is possible to seek the truth and document and archive the years “where nothing happens.”
Love and Other Dogs
My son, it turned out, was also playing a game with death. If he pretended that no pet was dying, then maybe the irreversible could be reversed and his father could be alive again. He finally admitted it when the last two animals standing were given up for adoption. Disheartened, we declared a truce with death.
In the American West, a Clown Motel and a Cemetery Tell a Story of Kitsch and Carnage
A little over a century ago, Tonopah, Nevada, was a bustling silver mining town of about 3,000 residents. Then a mysterious illness decimated the population. The American West is full of these sad or violent places now polished for tourism and consumption.
A Multigenerational Story of Interfaith Identity in Yugoslavia
Interfaith marriage is often talked about in the context of the socialist former Yugoslavia, but people in the region have been crossing religious lines for love, sex or some combination thereof for a long time. Ana Sekulić explores her relationship to religion by studying her own family’s past.
On the Anniversary of Her Death, a Friend Reflects on Shireen Abu Akleh
I was perplexed. How did this woman who carried an entire nation through some of its worst moments manage to be one of the funniest people I’d ever met?
A Diary of the Opening Salvos of Sudan’s Conflict
Leaving my house, my home, the place my siblings and I grew up in is killing me. This is the house my father returned to after 20 years in exile and died in. The same house where he married off my siblings. Where we hosted iftars, lunches and dinners for so many friends, family and loved ones.
The UN’s Mission in Mali Is on Tenterhooks
As more European countries withdraw their troops from Mali, locals in volatile areas fear that the U.N. peacekeeping mission will also depart. Tensions have grown among Mali, its African neighbors and the EU after Mali allowed Russian mercenaries to deploy in its territory.