Category Archives: Blog

When most people think of Care Bears, they don’t think of Iran. But one sweltering afternoon, while I was strolling through Esfehan–I stumbled upon these Care Bears painted on a colorful wall–inked with Persian for an Iranian pre-k. Since I was a fan of the Care Bears growing up, it was comforting to catch a glimpse of these unexpected and familiar faces, as I made my way through Iran…

Over the past several years, random online commenters have referred to the policies and politicians of the U.S. and Iran as “care bears” for a number of reasons. For example, some have asked if the overtures of Iranian officials are intended to make them appear as a “lovable clutch of care bears,” while others have argued that Obama’s policies in the Middle East amount to little more than a “care bear” approach (and if you support Obamacare, then you’d be considered a Care Bear too). I never really realized just how political Care Bears can be…

Like the way a garden burns
in a hundred shades of orange in the fall,
a Lover’s heart shrivels for a sense of the Beloved’s touch.

Now the face of that charred garden is my field of flowers.
The garden of the world is burnt,
but the garden of the heart is resurrected.

— Rumi

Throughout Beirut, parking spaces have been roped off to help prevent against carbomb attacks…

On Sundays, I usually spend my morning buying groceries, swimming in the sea, and walking my dog on the Corniche. But when the afternoon comes, it’s time to take a break from the sunshine, and head off to St. Jude’s in Beirut…

When the automatic glass doors to the hospital open, just one whiff of disinfectant is all I need to transition from my care-free morning to the suffering of children with cancer, waiting to play upstairs. Inhaling the familiar scent of bleach (mixed with hydrogen peroxide), memories of past suffering–my own and others–come flooding back, and I feel even more grateful for the peace I felt just an hour or two before.

Today at St. Jude’s, a little boy–four years old–was already in the playroom when I arrived–watching Tom and Jerry on the TV.

“Do you want to play fusball?” I asked him in Arabic–when Tom and Jerry’s mischief making was over.

After he nodded his tiny bald head, I helped wheel him over to the fusball table–since he was hooked up to a chemo drip.

“Yalla, yalla,” he said. “Let’s go.”

When we got to the fusball table, I realized that he didn’t know how to grip the handles, or hit the ping pong sized ball.

“You are blue, and I am red,” I said. Grateful for the opportunity to teach him how to play, I showed him how to whirl his blue teammates around.

The thing about playing fusball with a four year old, is that the grips of the handles are at chest level–not hip level–for a child that small. So I had to play with extreme caution and mindfulness, to avoid bumping him in the chest–where many of the children have catheters to receive their medicine. I let him use his hands as much as he wanted, and let him score as many goals as he possibly could. When we started to get tired, I got out some rubber dinosaur toys–and encouraged him to trample the fusball field. And when our dinosaur battle got old, we moved on to Grand Theft Auto–his favorite computer game by far…

While we were sitting and playing Grand Theft Auto, something completely unexpected happened–a man walked into the playroom, sat down, and began to unravel a beautiful Sufi story out of the blue…it’s too involved, I think, for a blogpost, so perhaps I’ll publish it as a longer piece of writing. On and on he talked, sharing way more about Sufism in Syria and Lebanon than I ever expected to hear in the kid’s playroom at St. Jude’s…

When I was visiting the rhinos at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya, this adorable baby elephant walked right up to me for a head rub–right after the baby elephants had finished chugging their morning bottles. As I gave this young (fellow) orphan a heartfelt massage on its hairy little forehead, it lifted its gaze from the ground to bat its exaggerated eyelashes right at me–if I could have taken it home with me, I would have. I could barely stand to think of the trauma it had survived at such a young age, when it lost its mother in the wild (which you can read about on the website below).

To foster one of the baby elephant or rhino orphans at the Wildlife Trust, please visit the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust online. To learn more about the visionary work of Dame Daphne Sheldrick, check out the film “Born to be Wild,” narrated by Morgan Freeman.

If the rate of poaching continues to accelerate, experts believe that Africa’s remaining rhino population may become extinct in the wild within the next 20 years–which would be an absolute tragedy. In fact, the Western Black Rhinoceros was declared extinct in 2011, and there are only around 6,000 Black Rhinos and 20,000 White Rhinos left–the majority of which are in South Africa and Namibia…

To learn more about rhinos today for World Rhino Day, turn on the National Geographic Wild (Channel 182?) Channel which will be profiling the plight of the rhinos all day.

Last year, at least 745 rhinos were poached, and more than two a day have been shot by poachers in 2013. In South Africa alone, 688 rhinos have been killed. Rhino horns can fetch up to $400,000 on the black market in Vietnam and China for their alleged medicinal properties.

The tragedy is that rhino horn is made of keratin, the same stuff that makes up human hair and nails. It has no medicinal value, you might as well eat your fingernails.

–- Mark Jones, Executive Director, Humane Society International

After seeing rhinos in the wild on safari, it was just as incredible to see a few rhinos up close when our safari group returned to Nairobi.  For years, I had dreamt of visiting the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust–which helps rehabilitate orphaned elephants and endangered rhinos.  The day before my safari group was scheduled to leave Kenya, I learned that the travel agency had scheduled me on a later flight than the rest of the group.  Thanks to this unexpected extension of my trip by several hours, I was able to visit the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust on my last morning in Kenya to finally meet the baby elephants and endangered rhinos that I’d been longing to see for years.

The rhino pictured above at the Wildlife Trust is getting the best care a rhino could hask for–and by now it’s probably made progress in recovering from all the trauma it experienced in the wild. Stay tuned for more rhino photos, since today is World Rhino Day–and I’ve had memories of these powerful–yet vulnerable–creatures on my mind all day…

 

Although there is no scientific proof of its medical value, rhino horn is highly prized in traditional Asian medicine, where it is ground into a fine powder or manufactured into tablets as a treatment for a variety of illnesses such as nosebleeds, strokes, convulsions, and fevers.

– WWF, African Rhino Poaching Crisis

Today is World Rhino Day, and events from Australia to Zimbabwe are being held to raise awareness about the plight of the rhinos–who face constant danger from heavily armed poachers, due to the high demand for rhino horn throughout Asia. Though many who purchase rhino horn believe it to be endowed with medicinal properties, others buy it merely as a status symbol–because it’s so expensive.

One of the most thrilling moments of my life was seeing some of these incredible creatures in the wild. When I was leading a safari last year through the Masai Mara in Kenya, we spotted a rhino hiding in the bushes. As you can see in the photo above, initially we could only make out the ears and tip of the horn.

But when the rhino started to turn, the profile of its enormous horn came into sharp focus. It’s a horn that many would kill for. Huddled in the grass next to the rhino, was a small black blob. When the blob began to move, we realized that it was an adorable baby rhino–as you can see in the photo below. On the mother’s back, some birds had hitched a free ride…

Our collective silence while we observed this young rhino walking with its mother them was tinged with as much sorrow as enthusiasm. Some even felt guilty taking a photograph–as it just the click of a camera was an intrusion. None of us could know if these two majestic creatures would one day fall victim to the death blows of the poachers–and the greed of those in faraway lands who lust after their horns. Today, to help rhinos like this mother and child, the World Wildlife Fund is attempting to raise global awareness about their plight by promoting the hashtags #iam4rhinos and #SaveTheRhino on Twitter. Please spread the word, and help save our endangered friends the rhinos…

Large-scale poaching of the now critically endangered black rhino resulted in a dramatic 96% decline from 65,000 individuals in 1970 to just 2,300 in 1993. Thanks to the persistent efforts of conservation programmes across Africa black rhino numbers have risen since the early 1990s to a current population of 5,055. — Save the Rhino

If you don’t try to fly,
and so break yourself apart,
you will be broken open by death,
when it’s too late for all you could become…

— Rumi

We must work together to end the unhealthy rivalries and interferences that fuel violence and drive us apart.

— President Rouhani

Those who were surprised to see an Op-Ed penned by the President of Iran in the Washington Post, may also be surprised to learn that Iran’s only Jewish lawmaker will be joining President Rouhani’s delegation to the United Nations this week.

Siamak Moreh Sedgh, the sole representative of the Jewish community in Iran’s parliament, will be the first Jewish lawmaker to accompany an Iranian president to the U.N. After Israel, Iran has the largest Jewish population in the Middle East. Whatever the motives behind it, Iran’s tone has certainly changed on a number of topics–and with President Rouhani scheduled to speak on Tuesday at the U.N., it’s likely that the surprises are just getting started…

The world has changed. International politics is no longer a zero-sum game but a multi-dimensional arena where cooperation and competition often occur simultaneously. Gone is the age of blood feuds. World leaders are expected to lead in turning threats into opportunities. — President Rouhani

I am a sky where spirits live.
Stare into this deepening blue,
while the breeze says a secret.

— Rumi