The Arab Spring uprising may have come to Egypt in 2011, but the country had been in turmoil for decades. After simmering in the 1980s under the increasingly corrupt and repressive dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak, the country’s unease boiled over in the January 2011 revolution that ousted him. However, in the years since the Arab […]
It’s 5:30 am on my last day in Burma. The full moon was last night so I was hoping for a setting moon in the morning over the city. On the shores of Yangon’s Kandawgyi Lake, the black birds were assembled by the hundreds. Shwedagon Pagoda at Sunrise Their familiar ‘kaw kaw’ combined with the […]
I was finally headed to Mrauk U (pronounced “Mraw Oo”) after a failed attempt in February 2014. This ancient royal city had been on my travel map since my first trip to Burma in 2011. Founded in 1430 A.D. it was the seat of the Rakhine kingdom for more than 300 years. It sits about […]
I arrived in Myanmar, otherwise known as Burma, for the third time in four years and things felt different. It seemed calmer, the sense that someone was watching you wasn’t there anymore – that is until I arrived in Rakhine State. Fisherman – Sittwe, Burma Upon arrival in Sittwe, my passport was examined closely, numbers […]
An elephant’s life in Myanmar, otherwise known as Burma, can be a treacherous and hard life. Estimates say that elephants in Burma can be worked moving between 800 and 1000 tons of weight per year. These elephants are often controlled and hence trained using sharp hooks that puncture the thinner skin between the ears and […]
The Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon had been occupied since January 2, 2016. After an extended standoff, the situation finally reached a breaking point when the militia’s leaders were arrested on January 26, 2016 during a traffic stop when they left the refuge to attend a community meeting. This was a major blow to […]
Beijing is no longer at the top spot as the most polluted city. New data conducted by the World Health Organization has found that most of the world’s polluted cities are in India with Delhi leading the pack. We breathe it in every day, but according to WHO a stark new warning has been issued […]
While most countries in the world are trying to eliminate child labor, Bolivia has legalized it. In July 2014, Bolivia passed a controversial law that allows children as young as 10 to work under certain circumstances. The United Nations recommends that the minimum age for children to do any type of work should be set […]
Despite the international drive to protect elephants from illegal poaching, more than 35,000 elephants continue to be killed every year for their tusks. Because elephants are the largest land mammal on the planet and have a heightened emotional intelligence, the possibility of a world without them should be avoided at all costs. However, there are […]
