”How beautifully the little birds are singing in the wood today. As if they didn’t have a care in the world. They are twittering and trilling all around and do not allow themselves to be disturbed by all the ugliness that has been enacted in this vicinity for months now.” Sometimes, you incidentally stumble upon a book that turns out to be both an incredible narration as well as a highly important work of history. ”The Mountain War” is exactly that. The book holds the diary entries of army physician Isaak A. Barasch, a Jewish Hungarian stationed at the Italian fronts during the First World War between 1914 and 1918.…

Professor Kate Dolan is one of the worldwide leading scientists and clinicians in the field of HIV, safe drug use, and methadone programs. In 1986 she founded with some of her colleagues the first needle and syringe program in Australia, which happened to be the third in the world. In the decades after she was closely involved with the establishment of treatment centers for women in Iran as well as the provision of methadone treatment to women in Irani prisons.  ”I asked if I could take off my hejab in the car and she says ‘Are you crazy?’ If the police see you, they will put you in jail.’ We…

‘’I needed to be with her. Not because I felt a deep love or bond (to be honest, I felt neither) but rather because that is what I thought a good parent would do, and I needed to feel like a good parent.’’  Dr. Kimberly Jane Lee is a paediatric critical care physician, who is used to seeing absolute tragedies on an almost daily base. As a physician she is prepared to treat these children, take critical stands in decision-making, and to a certain extend support their families. However, when her own personal life takes a turn, she realises only how little real empathy she was able to bring up. …