100 Years of Friendship: Centesimus Annus

Pope St. John Paul II proposed to do two things in his encyclical letter Centesimus Annus (on the hundredth anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum Novarum [of new things]):  look back at the earlier document “itself in order to discover anew the richness of the fundamental principles which it formulated for dealing with the […]

Nojoom, an inspiration for #Solidarity

This has been a tough year for humanity. 2015, originally designated as the year of light, has been a battlefield in the hands of dark monopolies. As an activist in the Lebanese civil society, I find how cohesion and mutual integration is slowly being narrowed within certain groups, leaving the modern and industrial society take […]

Tolkien’s optimism about human nature: A lesson for our society today

As a young student committed to make a change in today’s world, I have been struck by our society’s lack of optimism concerning certain people. Indeed, I often hear sentences like: “this person is a lost cause and we cannot do anything for him or her”. This sentence mainly concerns people who are poor or […]

The Five Ws of Teaching

I have never thought of myself as a teacher. Whether it came to reporting a topic in class, participating in student’s takeover day in high school or simply teaching choreography for a dance, I knew that I was not the most ideal person for the job. No matter the setting, whether classroom or the “real […]

A Tale of Two Shoes: Children of Heaven, a Review

Give us the luxuries of life, and we will dispense with the necessities.  – G.K. Chesterton, 1920 Children of Heaven is an introspective film. Directed by Majid Majidi, Children of Heaven was the first Iranian film to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and it secured an American box office […]

Musings from the Tech Booth

Seriousness with a kick of fun – that’s what I can say about the WYAAP Emerging Leaders Conference. I was literally in the front seat during the conference. I didn’t know operating the tech booth was a very tricky job. Despite its complications, not to mention the attention I needed to give to what I […]

The Realization of How

Two years ago, when I was eighteen, after being moved to tears by the heart-wrenching but inspirational stories reported in Half The Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn, I decided that I would do something to change the world. I was passionate and filled with confidence that […]

Weird Forest of Wonders

Čudna šuma čuda A winding journey through Ivšić’s obsession – the forest – will certainly contribute to paving the way to recognition of one of the silenced Croatian giants. [tabs] [tab title=”English”] So transparent he can’t be seen A combination of a thematic exhibition and an hommage to a diversity of disciplines and techniques – […]