Akum Norder

Mar 31, 2024 | timesunion.com | Akum Norder

Fazel Ghani Takar had a 17-year career with the National Directorate of Security, the intelligence arm of the democratic government in Afghanistan, collecting community information on the locations of land mines and roadside bombs for the U.S. Army. He did this work, he says, “from 2004 until the end of the mission” — that is, until the American troops left the country in the summer of 2021. When the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan, Takar was a target.

Mar 31, 2024 | timesunion.com | Akum Norder

In a sense, Shumon Ahmed has been migrating all his life. Though he was born and raised in Dhaka, Bangladesh's capital and largest city, he spent time in Australia, India and Europe before coming to the U.S. Even within his native country, his childhood was spent on the move: His restless father changed houses more times than Ahmed could count. Ahmed has never not thought about the idea of “home.” It drives his work as an artist.

Oct 21, 2023 | timesunion.com | George Hearst |Casey Seiler |Akum Norder |Jay Jochnowitz

Here’s something for a dysfunctional House of Representatives to consider as it heads into another week of gridlock: A shocking number of Americans have lost faith in democracy, so much so that they’re willing to consider other options. And they’re not ruling out violence as a way of settling our nation’s political battles. Those were some of the unsettling findings of a poll released Wednesday by the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Oct 10, 2023 | timesunion.com | George Hearst |Casey Seiler |Akum Norder |Jay Jochnowitz

After the Hamas attack on Israel, the mind strains for the right words. “Horrific” and “barbaric” don't fully capture what the world witnessed over the weekend. The slaughter and mutilation of innocents at a music festival. Mass kidnappings, with children and elderly women – including a Holocaust survivor in a wheelchair – among those taken hostage. Bloodbaths at kibbutz settlements. Citizens shot dead in their cars or while waiting at bus stops.

Sep 7, 2023 | timesunion.com | George Hearst |Casey Seiler |Akum Norder |Jay Jochnowitz

What are the odds, we wonder, of New York state finding among its nearly 20 million residents someone without a pretty apparent conflict of interest to serve on a seven-member commission? Those odds must be awfully high for Marissa Shorenstein to serve as long as she has on the state Gaming Commission while working for a company that represents the New York Racing Association — which the commission regulates. But don’t worry, New Yorkers, the commission assures. It was all ethical.