Home of the Brave

My take on what happened in the election.

Militiaman outside the Republican Convention in Cleveland, 2016.

A short essay on what I know about fascism.

I wrote this after I got back home the other night, but it took a few days to get it posted. I had a good trip, thanks very much for your support.

Dr. Edward Alam, professor of philosophy and theology at Notre Dame University in Lebanon.

This interview with Dr. Alam gives a very good historical context for the war now going on in Lebanon. I feel lucky to have met him. Here are the links to the book he recommended for more in depth study:

The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi

The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World by Avi Shlaim

The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappe

This is the monument in Martyr’s Square in Beirut.

Four more interviews with people on the street in Beirut.

On the street in Beirut.

An interview with Yehya Youness, owner of Electrip, an electric scooter company in Beirut.

I lifted this image from a L’Orient Today story.

I made a mistake about the date. I meant Friday, October 11th. This is a short piece recorded in my hotel room following last night’s bombing in Central Beirut.

A family camping out along the beach in Beirut to avoid being bombed in their home.

Oleksandr Kamyshin, CEO of Ukrainian Railways, with members of his management team.  Photo by Alan Chin.

Photographer Alan Chin was on the show over a year ago talking about the siege of the U.S. Capitol. He’s now recently returned from covering the war in Ukraine—taking photos and writing stories for Insider, an online business magazine. I gave him a few days to settle after he got home to New York City, and then I called him to find out what it was like over there.

Link to Alan’s series for Insider.

Olena Yaryna and Oleksandr Zhuravel take cover inside the Vrubivskiy Lyceum school building (Luhansk) as incoming shellfire struck the area. At least eight impacts striking within a mile could be heard over the next several minutes, and Yaryna and her staff took cover inside the school building away from the windows. Photo by Alan Chin.

At the Turboatom factory (Kharkiv), which manufactures turbines for steam, hydroelectric, and nuclear power stations in dozens of countries, enormous machines manipulate heavy metal into gleaming blades and rotors. Deputy General Director of Production Sergei Paciuk admitted that war has been bad for business. Photo by Alan Chin.

With 800 artists and staff, the Lysenko State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre is the biggest in Ukraine and the second biggest in Europe after Munich’s in Germany. When I arrived, I found the performers about to perform this season’s first performance of Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty. Photo by Alan Chin.

Aleksandra Guzovskaya, a recent design graduate working as an artist’s assistant at the Afanasiev State Academic Puppet Theater. Photo by Alan Chin.

At the Cathedral of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a landmark 18th century structure that was heavily damaged during the Second World War and restored afterwards, the basement crypt has been turned into an air raid shelter. Photo by Alan Chin.

Maria Lukashevych, 21, is the youngest employee at the Novoiavorivsk post office. She’s making a stop to deliver cash pensions and groceries. Photo by Alan Chin.

Internally displaced Ukrainians who fled Russian bombardment built a fire for warmth at the Lviv train station while waiting for ongoing travel. Photo b Alan Chin.

Passenger wagons are loaded to at least twice their normal capacity. This Thursday, March 10, a train bound for Przemysl was loaded at twice its normal capacity, with over a hundred passengers in each wagon. Travelers stood or sat on every inch of floor space. The passengers were mostly women, children, and seniors, because of Ukraine’s wartime policy prohibiting men considered of military age (18 – 60) from leaving the country. Photo by Alan Chin.