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2 months ago | 
jamcq.com | Jenny Abamu
One of my favorite ways to surprise Americans when we talk about Turkey is to let them listen to Duman, a Turkish rock band founded in 1999. My favorite song from them, “Senden Daha Güzel,” is a headbanging melody that resonates even more deeply when you’re a bit buzzed, and it makes Americans question every assumption they hold about the country. And they absolutely should.
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2 months ago | 
jamcq.com | Jenny Abamu
President Donald Trump has a high risk tolerance, an individualistic decision-making style, a hierarchical leadership approach, and a transactional negotiation methodology—all cultural traits that our JAM CQ Middle East analyst, Muhammad Dabbour, says give Hamas hope.
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2 months ago | 
jamcq.com | Jenny Abamu
One of my favorite historical periods is the Cold War. I’ve devoured countless books on it because I find the concept of entire nations aligning and going to war over competing ideologies or cultures fascinating. Between 1947 and 1991, the United States championed its capitalistic, free-market democracy against the Soviet Union’s communism.
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Feb 26, 2025 | 
jamcq.com | Jenny Abamu
It’s funny how certain corporate backtracks on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) can feel so personal—especially for Black people. Take Target, for instance. When it first expanded its offerings to include more Black haircare products, festive Black Santa outfits, and other items reflecting aspects of our culture, I remember feeling an odd little jolt of pride. Before that, finding quality hair products for myself or my kids usually meant a trip to the local beauty supply store.
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Feb 19, 2025 | 
jamcq.com | Jenny Abamu
Over the course of this year, I’ve been thinking about how I can use my global experiences to make out-of-the-box, more enriching life choices for myself and my children. One idea that I have not only mulled over but have built an entire online testing platform for is spending summers overseas. And I am not alone in my thoughts. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, a growing number of American parents are rethinking how they spend their summer months.
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Feb 12, 2025 | 
jamcq.com | Jenny Abamu
“Ama yabancı.” But he is a foreigner. Those two words—casually tossed out by a Turkish colleague who didn’t realize I spoke the language well enough to understand him—still echo in my mind. It was 2012, and I taught middle school English in Istanbul. We had just held a contest for the best English-language speech in the school. An Iraqi fifth grader stole the show: He was charismatic, eloquent, and spoke with confidence that put older students to shame.
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Feb 5, 2025 | 
jamcq.com | Jenny Abamu
I recently met a doctor at a friend’s holiday party. He gave up a high salary to pursue public health work in Southeast Asia with USAID, risking his own safety and health to provide medical care in communities with dire needs. He spoke earnestly about his calling to public health, almost with a religious fervor. He shared stories about having to make do, grappling with tough decisions on who received help and who went without, all while contending with understaffed and under-resourced conditions.
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Jan 29, 2025 | 
jamcq.com | Jenny Abamu
I recently showed up at a Monday afternoon pickleball clinic, expecting maybe half a dozen newbies. But when I arrived, the local gym floor looked like a party: Around 25 adults filled every available court, paddles in hand, waiting for their turn to play. The instructor joked, calling out to the crowd, “Don’t you all have jobs?” Apparently not—at least not during pickleball hour. The courts filled with teams of two, and some of us even had to linger on the sidelines to rotate in.
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Jan 22, 2025 | 
jamcq.com | Jenny Abamu
This week, the inauguration seemed to speed past me, which is odd because I’m based in the Washington, D.C.-area. I took a moment to pause—first, to wonder about Melania’s hat fashion choice (we all paused, I guess that was the goal), and second, to notice all those tech billionaires lined up, almost in an act of kissing the ring. It said a lot: all these titans of Silicon Valley flying out to make nice with the incoming President.
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Jan 8, 2025 | 
jamcq.com | Jenny Abamu
Apart from tapas, Barcelona has apparently given the world another export: Aitana Lopez, an AI influencing fitness guru. Think impossibly smooth skin, perfectly flowy pink hair, and proportions that make Disney princesses look downright average. I remember staring at her photo, mesmerized, reminded of the stomach pouch I carry after giving birth to two children. At first, I assumed these were your standard “overly filtered” social media personalities—just more curated than usual.