If you read my blog at all, you know how much I write about the situation in Zimbabwe. Over the summer, a friend from one of the local bookstores passed me a galley of the The Last Resort, a memoir of Zimbabwe by Douglas Rogers. Rogers is a born and...

I have been eagerly anticipating Pulitzer Prize-winning writers Sheryl WuDunn's and Nicholas Kristoff's new book Half the Sky. In fact, when a group of friends and I went to the Emmy awards a few weeks back, in their "swag bags," the traditional Hollywood goody bag for major events, I included...

Amidst the ticket stubs and litter-strewn garbage on the infamous red carpet, I watched Monday as the production grips and gaffers hustled to dismantle the dreams and the disappointments of the 61st Annual Emmy Awards. Through their methodical breakdown and equipment removal, one burning question remained in my mind.

All of us can remember exactly where we were, when the plane crashed into the first tower on September 11, 2001. My husband and I were getting ready for work, when we saw those awful images that remain etched on the collective "American Mind" forever. The visceral reaction I remember...

We use to play "kick the can" back in Clawson, Michigan, a small rural town north of Detroit. Of course, when someone kicked the proverbial can, they shouted, "Kick the Can." We kids scattered everywhere searching for a safe place to hide. There is not a more appropriate analogy for...

I met Betty Makoni back in spring of 2007. I was introduced to her work by photojournalist and dear friend, Paola Gianturco.

Paola and I were going to hear Betty speak in San Francisco but by accident when I called for a ticket to the event, Sara Dotlich, who...

There are days when I wish we were back in the 'Wild Wild West". THEME MUSIC PLEASE

My boots scuff on the plank sidewalk as I move toward the "Last Chance Saloon." With one arm I push the swinging doors open and saunter into the saloon. There is a ruckus...

It is 3 am Pacific Standard time and I am wide awake. One of my doctor calls this time of insomnia in patients as "Lyme-time". This is usually in the middle of the night when you are desperate for rest, to get through another day. Unfortunately those little critters have...

Thomas Gray, the English poet once said, "Ignorance is truly bliss." "Bliss" is a wonderful form of denial if you are in the throes of disease, such as Lyme. The illness can be a painful and debilitating process, fraught with complicated treatments and medical ignorance. One can accept ignorance with...

I hate when my children say the word suck. To me, just the pronunciation of the word, feels lousy. Yet, when I think about the damage being wrought around the world, because of human greed, the word SUCK is most appropriate. Even powerful words like dreadful, terrible and appalling, are...

My husband and I have been reading the classic "A Christmas Carol" to our children. Every night at bedtime we take turns reading portions of the tale. The book represents our countdown to Christmas. With imagination, I create a self-absorbed, grating voice to mimic Scrooge as I read. I can't...

Last week's blog created a little bit of tension with some Zimbabweans, who felt that I exaggerated the situation in Zimbabwe. I stand by what I wrote, and believe that the current crisis in Zimbabwe is worse than the outside world knows.

It is no accident that a Human...

Thanksgiving is a time of reflection, and for me it always brings me back to my incarceration in Zimbabwe last year. Every day I am more thankful for my life, my family and for having had some assistance in getting out of Zimbabwe. For this, I am thankful-and reprint last...

Behind the stench of flowing sewage and the smell of disease is a country that is beyond collapse. Yet, nowhere are there more signs of bustling activity than the countries graveyards. On a bright day, in Unit L graveyard in Chitungwiza, the staff opens up 50 new graves for burials....

We are living in a guest cottage of a house that we recently sold. The house and guest cottage are in the Woodside hills surrounded by walking trails and lots of wildlife. The cottage was originally a horse barn, converted to a three bedroom cottage. Built in 1927, history ekes...

It has been an eerily quiet day, today. The quietest I can ever recall on the day of a presidential election. Strange. So many articles will be written in the next few days about the election results that I decided to write about one factor that helped me to choose...

I received this letter via an email chain and found it thought provoking amidst all the pre-election jitters. The writer forces us to think and reveals a perspective that challenges a voter's righteousness in this tough climate. Though I can't credit who wrote this, as I don't know the author,...

In less than a month, we will elect a new President of the United States. This election is the most important event of my lifetime. Unless you have been living under a rock, you know of the many critical issues facing our country. Many of these issues are precarious. Some...

Senator Clinton's speech tonight was spectacular. She was powerful, gracious and Presidential. She connected with the throngs of people on the convention floor through her passionate speech and personal stories. At one point my eyes welled up with tears; for what she spoke and what we lost. My ten year...

Perhaps, I should say "You-Know-Who" or "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" but the more we vocalize the name, the less power and fear he will use to violate Zimbabweans. Mugabe. Mugabe. Mugabe. Voldemort is of course a fictional character, who personifies evil and strikes terror at the very heart of the world he inhabits....