Between 1980 and 2021, the number of incarcerated women in the US increased by more than 525 percent, rising from 26,326 in 1980 to 172,700 in 2023. What’s gone wrong ? How can we fix it? ________________________________________________________________________ Excerpts from a prison writing workshop, Wyoming Women’s Center, 2017 “When you are young you feel that you… Read More
I must admit I skimmed over Turkish history in my youth. But I had wanted to visit Istanbul (formerly Constantinople) ever since I was aware of its existence. The city had an aura of mystery and mixed influences. It was the setting for James Bond films. Today the nation is supposed to be a… Read More
Dawn: Mwingi Rd., Kileleshwa, Nairobi. My Lufthansa flight -an Airbus A340-300 — touched down last night at 8:11 pm local time. It has taken me an entire summer to prepare for this day. I haven’t slept much. The cock is crowing. There was a slow-mo feel to the entire season of renting, interviewing, writing magazine… Read More
My Mom’s best friend, my surrogate mother growing up, was an opera singer named Maria Callas. No, not that Maria Callas, the tempestuous vocal genius and companion to Aristotle Onassis. This Maria Callas was altogether different — warm, gifted, fragile, yet steely strong. She passed into another life September 8 2017, and her daughter, Michele Morin, sent… Read More
Harbin, Manchuria: Officials here seem reluctant to spotlight the Japanese germ warfare scientists and what they did to thousands of local inhabitants here in 1932 and beyond. Perhaps that’s the reason Harbin has built China’s greatest contemporary war museum, known formally as “The Museum of Evidence of War Crimes by Japanese Army Unit 731,” in… Read More
Great Cold War debates happen in the most unlikely of places. West Java, Indonesia, March 26. Today I’m invited to a very dressy event. A Russian Ambassador to Indonesia along with a Vice Minister of Telecom and Mass Communication arrive at the university to attend a big do — a celebration of Russian language, media, and… Read More
Washington, D.C., September 2014. Arielle S Emmett, Ph.D. has been selected for a Fulbright Specialist grant in Communications and journalism at University Padjadjaran, West Java Indonesia for spring 2015. As a Fulbright specialist, Dr. Emmett will be involved in a class project related to digital journalism and visual storytelling. She will be devising an online… Read More