The Blog is Back
Dear Blog Readers, After a hiatus of over a year, I am back, more or less. The last post I wrote was on March 3rd, 2020, shortly before Italy went into a national lockdown on March 9th. It is strange...
Rome in the Time of Coronavirus
The cobblestone streets in the center of Rome – usually teeming with tourists – are empty. At the Colosseum a woman with a big white sanitary mask on her face poses for a selfie. In St. Peter’s Square a young...
Madagascar: Magnificent and Impoverished
Two teenage girls squat on the ground at the sprawling Antananarivo garbage dump sorting detritus. Around them hills of garbage spread in all directions, little trails winding through the mounds like a golf course gone rotten. Instead of golf carts making their...