I’m currently on a cultural exchange trip with students from my university visiting a woman’s college in the United States. Over our arrival weekend as students from our host campus tooks us around the city. The conversation between my students was fascinating. "Everyone in America is so nice," they were saying, after a five hour layover [...]

When I was an undergraduate student, two of my favorite faculty would always ask me to help them with their cell phones. Setting up their  voice mail, retrieving messages, finding missed calls. This was over eight years ago and long before SMS had made it to the US. So my tasks were pretty minor. I used to chuckle after one [...]

Yes, it’s come to that. I’ve found a topic to write about that is interesting to me but potentially harmful to some of my friendships or the image people have of me. It’s a subject that some of you might agree with and others feel alienated. For the first time in my brief year as [...]

I went to a debate in here Doha last night, with people who represented both parties, Republican and Democrat. What struck me as I listened was how much was not being said. The Republican representative kept talking about John McCain as the ‘acceptable’ candidate. Now what, in the world, does that mean? I did ask a [...]

Believe it or not, the title of this piece is an actual quote of a woman during a recent NPR story when questioned about her leanings for the 08 vote. This gem came out while she denied that she was "racist or whatever you want to call it." Clearly, as you’ll see in a moment, she [...]

Is being attractive or likeable more important than being smart?  Watching the US "veep" debates and the hours of analysis later, you might think so.  Apparently designer clothes, winks, kisses, and ‘shoutouts’ are what it takes to win the nation’s hearts and minds these days. I’m tempted to wash my hands of the whole thing and [...]