Essays by

Michael Varga

Featured image for “When You’re An Outlier”
September 11, 2024

When You’re An Outlier

Often the word “outlier” is used in cancer treatment to describe a patient who beats the odds and lives longer than expected. Those...


Featured image for “When A Government Totters”
June 17, 2024

When A Government Totters

In the middle of an exam, my Chadian students suddenly stood up and fled my classroom. A minute before, they had seen through...


Featured image for “Our Tax Dollars Pay Your Salary”
May 31, 2024

Our Tax Dollars Pay Your Salary

Two Americans were asking for a meeting with me. They had traveled from Alabama to Washington to lobby for more assistance to Lebanon,...


Featured image for “Get That Man a Chair”
April 3, 2024

Get That Man a Chair

In 1995 at the G-7 Summit in Halifax (Canada), Secretary of State Warren Christopher was meeting with the Japanese finance minister. Somehow the...


Featured image for “Improbably Grateful”
October 25, 2023

Improbably Grateful

In 1995 the doctors told me I would probably be dead of AIDS by April 1997. I had retired early from the U.S....


Featured image for “African Charm”
October 3, 2021

African Charm

Some villagers brought medications with instructions in English, Russian, French or German. They could read none of these languages, so I translated them...