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Dialogue of Civilizations

my experiences leading students to Jordan, Egypt, Oman, Turkey, the Balkans, and beyond

Jeddah, rewind

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January 11, 2012

Here's my brother Samer Abu-Ghazaleh, the mastermind, mover-shaker, and energetic leader of our first-ever Northeastern Alumni event in Saudi Arabia.

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You can't get there (Serbia) from here (Kosovo) - go to Montenegro!

July 22, 2011

“You can’t cross this boundary from here [the Kosovo “border”/Administrative boundary]. You’ll have to go to Montenegro and then enter Serbia from there.” Thus sayeth the Serbian policeman at the boundary/border, yesterday (Thursday) around 3:30 pm. The reason? We had a stamp on our passports that read “Republic of Kosovo”, which Serbia does not recognize as independent nation-state (nor do a small number of nation-states of the international community – Russia, Spain, Greece, and 6 other members of the EU). “Kosovo is Serbia.” What he was proposing was for us to “re-enter” Kosovo (1/4 th of a mile back from where we came); return to the town of Mitroveca (where we just left 90 minutes ago); cut over to the West, and enter Montenegro (another 90 minutes-2 hours); then drive to the Montenegro-Serbia border (another hour); then drive until we catch up with the road we could have been on – only one hour from the point on the map where we were standing that ver...

Srebrenica - connecting Anne Frank (1945) to Srebrenica (1995)

July 18, 2016

Enroute from Sarajevo to Belgrade, we made the most important visit of our program thus far, to Potocari Memorial of the Srebrenica massacre/genocide of July 1995. Our visit occurred 21 years almost to the exact day when the killing fields of Srebrenica ended.

Student blogs - check them out!!

July 11, 2012

on the right side of this blog, run your cursor over the second box down from the right - you should see "Student Blogs Balkans 2012". As students send me their URL (addresses) for their blogs, I will add them here. the students have unique insights into much of the same thing I discuss - but then again, so much more! Check them out when you can. While I'm "here", I'll post just two more pictures from July 9. First, a picture of our meeting with Ambassador Rod Moore, former US Ambassador to Montenegro, career foreign service officer, and now works as the 2nd in command at the OHR - the Office of the High Representative. OHR is essentially the "authority of last resort" in Bosnia. We met with Ambassador Moore just after we witnessed the ceremony honoring the 520 souls who were to be buried today in Srebrenica. Here is one more picture, below, that shows the flowers that were placed on the 3 semi-trucks, carrying the 520 coffins that were...