A drone is often preferred for missions that are too “dull, dirty, or dangerous” for manned aircraft.” There are more slaves in the world today than at any other time in human history, an estimated 27 million in bondage across the globe. Men, women, and children being exploited for manual and sexual labor against their will. PROLOGUE Her name was Casita. She was eighteen, looked fourteen, and thought like twenty-two. One of nine children from El Chorillo, a poverty-stricken barrio on the outskirts of Panama City. Her brother, Javier, had been snatched from the streets six months earlier. He was nine years old and beautiful. Casita completed high school at the top of her class, spoke fluent English and Spanish with an advanced degree from the streets of El Chorillo. There she was known as  jefe Mujer, (boss woman). In the developed world she would be a CEO, respected by her peers, and feared by her competitors. Interpol, the world’s largest internationa...

MEMORIES~1963 A dragon lives forever but not so little boys Painted wings and giant rings make way for other toys One grey night it happened, Jackie Paper came no more And puff that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar In the 60's we all assumed Puff The Magic Dragon was a folk song about smoking pot. The truth is that the writers, Leonard Lipton and Peter Yarrow, will tell you it's a fantasy based on a poem about fading into old age. If you were alive in the early '60s, as I was, you may look back on Puff with nostalgia and a different take on life. Puff was the imaginary friend, a Dragon, of a little boy named Jackie Paper. The lyrics explain that Jackie's life was temporary and that Puff lost his roar when Jackie was gone. I tell my children and their spouses that they better live in the present and enjoy their children every waking moment, they'll be gone in the blink of an eye. Play with them, read to them, take them places, make them laugh, hug them when...

                            FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT We're frightened because of COVID and the economy, fair enough, but consider history. The Great Depression and the 2nd World War didn't cause more death than the pandemic, they caused more fear. The difference is, in the 1930s and '40s we had a leader that told us in a calm, reassuring voice that "we had nothing to fear but fear itself. " Fear is a crippling emotion, it causes indecision and panic during times of peril when what we need is leadership that reassures us. Remember when your kids woke up in the middle of the night with nightmares, they were scared to death. What did you do, you held them in your arms and whispered calmly that it was alright, they were safe and had nothing to fear. FDR was the nation's parent he knew that we needed reassurance that we needed that calm, strong voice leading us through a crisis. I honestly believe Joe Biden is that voice and t...

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only." Charles Dickens Paris in the 18th Century was in turmoil, it was the reign of terror, the French revolution was raging the atmosphere was chaotic. Washington, DC in the 21st Century is in turmoil, the pandemic is raging and the atmosphere is chaotic. Is this an analogy?  Maybe, but we need to fill in a few gaps.  Paris in 1789 was suffering from unemployment, hunger, and p...

  I spent 13 months in Armenia, living and working in the capital, Yerevan, the economic, cultural, and political heartbeat of the country. Living there as an American ex-pat and absorbing the history of the people I realized that Armenia was more than the Kardasians, much more. There's a cadre of brilliant Armenians who've changed the world in big and small ways. Khachatur Abovyan-author & intellectual Daron Acemoğlu-economist Hovannes Adamian-pioneer color-tv Cardinal Grigor Petros XV Agagianian-candidate for Pope Ara Parseghian-Notre Dame football coach. And countless others,  but I digress. I was there as an Economic Development Consultant, working on a USAID project rubbing shoulders with the locals and learning, learning, learning. If nothing else, Armenians are emotionally proud of their heritage, their language, their history, and their refusal to roll-over for their enemies.  In a year's time, I had many experiences including symphonies, ballets, museums, and...

 It's an awful feeling, being alone. Your thoughts ping back and forth, like a mental game of bumper pool. Staying productive? Staying on schedule? Sticking to my routine? How much social media? How about the cellphone?  Texting, emailing, zooming, surfing? How about writing & recording? How about walking, driving, meditating? How about age, I'm in the COVID death zone.  This is how it began, the signs were ubiquitous.  " FREE COVID-19 TESTING, HAMMONASSET STATE PARK, 8AM TO 4PM, SUNDAY THRU SATURDAY." I said to Julie, "we should do that, why not, it shouldn't hurt and we'll be supporting the Governor's initiative to improve the state's database, that's good for everyone." I decided to do a trial run and check the wait time before Julie took a test. It's a Saturday, the line is long, I wait almost an hour before entering the testing tent. I complete a simple form, name, address, phone, email, age, gender, and a few health question...

Montenegro is a hidden gem, a tiny Balkan country on the Adriatic Sea, bordered by Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Albania. I was stationed in her capital, Podgorica, a charming city of red roofs, fabulous food, charming cafes, and extraordinarily attractive people, tall and beautiful, both men and women. The Adriatic is a sailors paradise, with calm blue water, and a rugged coastline dotted with inhabited islands, especially off the coast of Dubrovnik, Croatia. I was working with the timber industry, we were repositioning nationalized sawmills for resale to the private sector.  I worked and socialized with a mix of Montenegrins, Russians, Croatians, and Serbians, now that was an experience, When they sat in a local cafe they ordered Vodka by the bottle, shot glasses all around, and water on the side, that was for the pussies.  These guys spoke broken English with accents so strong I needed interpretation. They loved to tell stories about life under the strongma...