Simone Says

From the Editor….Here’s a video of Simone coming down the middle part of the 52 stairs from her front door to the street (taken about two weeks ago)  Our author turned 97 on January 14th and we wanted you to see her in motion. I complimented her on how well she was navigating. She replied, […]

Political scientist Valerie M. Hudson wrote: “Men agreed to be ruled by other men in return for all men ruling over women.” It is because of male domination at home and in the political arena that women’s march toward full equality has been painfully slow and tortuous. This year 110 women, nearly all Democrats, were […]

Music is a contact sport. An electric current passes through the conductor to the orchestra and through the orchestra to the audience. Audiences clap or shout “Bravo” (unless they boo and hiss.) This response in turn rebounds back to the performers. Gutsavo Dudamel understands this phenomenon extremely well and maximizes the connection. Dudamel is the […]

  Last month, Russian forces seized and shot at three Ukrainian vessels attempting to cross through the Kerch Strait, a narrow passage between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Six sailors were injured. The Russians then boarded two warships and a tugboat, detaining more sailors and completely blocking the Strait. Some of the […]

    Assia Bibi, a Christian woman living in Pakistan, was sentenced to death in Pakistan for blasphemy for having participated in a protest march. Even though she was exonerated by the Supreme Court, she must now flee if she wants to avoid being attacked by an angry mob of people who fully intend to […]

    Hillary and Jackie is a 1998 film about the two British sisters Jacqueline and Hilary du Pre, one a cellist, the other a flutist. The film pretty much mirrors their actual lives. Jackie became a virtuoso at an early age and rose to international prominence. Hilary struggled and eventually gave up performing to […]

  He lists his nationality in this way: Palestinian, Argentine, Spanish, Israeli. He was born in Argentina in 1942. His Russian-Jewish parents emigrated to Israel when he was 9. He had already performed his first piano recital. Like so many musicians, he was precocious. He started playing the piano at age five, but his greatest […]

His name is Denis Mukwege. He is a doctor at Panzi Hospital which he created in Bukavu in the Eastern Congo (formerly Zaire) near the border with Burundi. This beautiful region, (parts look like Switzerland and parts like the Caribbean), is being ravaged by more than 20 years of ethnic conflict, tribal wars between rival […]

In a video clip, a round-faced baby -no older than 2- is shown staring fixedly ahead, big tears slowly forming in his eyes and rolling down his cheeks. He seems to be in a trance. He is listening to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. It is as if he had known sorrow in a previous life and […]