It’s Black History Month, and sellers everywhere in America are trying to promote their products with the spirit behind the celebration—just like me with my black jagua tattoos kits. But I just want to point out that some people should refrain from attempting to burnish their image by associating themselves with Black people and The Month. For example, Ivanka Trump tweeted the following on February 1st: “During #BlackHistoryMonth, we celebrate heroes like Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who Read More…

My friend Mary called to invite me to a dinner party yesterday. The purpose was to introduce a Maasai warrior she befriended to people she thought would appreciate him and his ongoing project: to eliminate preventable deaths from malaria in his village and surrounding areas; to eradicate female circumcision from his culture; and to make male circumcision medically safe. With his own meager means, he had studied to become a licensed rural Health Practitioner, then he opened his health clinic, Read More…

As you know from my last (and first) post on this site, Pascal was dispatched to the Amazon (or he decided to go, depending on which one of us you ask).  On our way to the airport, I made him promise to stay in touch with me every three days to let me know he was alive and well.  In the month he was away, he managed to call me a total of three times—when it exists, technology is downright Read More…