BY ANNA KORDUNSKY Bashir Ahmad Gwakh, 28, a journalist from Afghanistan, credits the training he received in 2003 at a US-funded skill-building program with starting his career. Born in the village of Khwaizi in the Goshta district, Gwakh fled Afghanistan…
Author: Thanassis Cambanis
UAE Pressures War Allies for Economic Favors
BY KARA SUNDBY Canadians travelling to the United Arab Emirates will face substantially higher travel costs in 2011 following the Gulf nation’s decision to impose a costly visa on all Canadian citizens. The visa requirement is the latest strike…
Tibet Economy Leaves Exiles Behind
BY KARA SUNDBY Sonam Choezom has never set foot in Lhasa’s bustling Barkhor Street market or turned the prayer wheels at its Jokhang Temple. She has never made the pilgrimage to Mount Kailash to join Hindus, Jains and other Buddhists…
The Music Man of Grozny
BY MATT LUCAS Somewhere in the lost alleyways of Grozny, if you know the right place to go, you can hear Ruslan play his old records from before the wars. Zeppelin, Hendrix, Marley, the great jazzmen, the blues. According to…
Silencing the Sindicalistas
BY WHITNEY EULICH On an April night ten years ago, Luz Ortiz took the bus home from the local university after wrapping up a union meeting. It was 10:30 p.m., and the streets of Cali, Colombia were quiet, dark. When…
Off the Derech
BY JEFFREY BERMAN I walked into his Bushwick duplex a little earlier than most of the other guests. My host apologized that everyone was running late. Still, he said, hopefully we would start soon. I wasn’t offered a drink on…
Taxi Power
BY ALEX VILLARINO Last time I visited Mexico City I noticed something different in the streets. Instead of the traditional green, beaten-up VW beetles, taxicabs were brand new Nissan Tsuru models painted gold and red. In 2008 those green taxicabs…
El Parche: Art to Change Colombia
BY STIG ARILD PETTERSEN The smiling face of a tanned young woman with short black hair suddenly peeps out of the apartment door next to the bell I’ve just rung. She’s Olga and I’m Stig and we’re both happy to…
In Colombia the price of a life is $770
BY STIG ARILD PETTERSEN Luz Marina Bernal straightens the sheet on the top of the bunk bed in the narrow, florescent-lit room. “This is where I last saw my son alive,” she says calmly. “When the rest of us came…
The Lost Boys Vote
BY STEPHEN GRAY The gunfire, explosions and screams coming from his village convinced Peter it was time to flee. Concealed by the falling dusk, he escaped into the woods, leaving his family, his village in Southern Sudan, and his childhood…