Vaios Triantafyllou

On Friday, Nov. 13 the world witnessed in disgrace the bombings and shootings in Paris for which the Islamic State claimed responsibility. Realizing that to write about this event can promote it, and hence accomplish its purpose of spreading terror, I am morally obligated to dedicate this week’s column to the memory of those who have fallen in the name of democracy and freedom.

The United States, similar to other large Western economies, is driven by the financial sector. What is especially peculiar about this sector is that, for the most part, it transforms money into more money without the production of any goods during the process. There are procedures, however, such as venture capital investments, through which the financial sector enhances production of goods and services.

In early March of this year, I was returning to the United States from a seven-day “People to People” trip to Cuba when I was “randomly” searched at Miami International Airport. After waiting in line for almost half an hour, I faced an officer of the Department of Homeland Security for a series of customary questions regarding products I was bringing back to the U.S.

Last week, during the pope’s visit to Philadelphia, much of the city was forced to shut down (as happened in New York and Washington, D.C.) The events took place despite the existing separation between church and state and the fact that less than a fourth of U.S.

Before I had finished my first week as a graduate student at Penn, the front page of The Daily Pennsylvanian featured a story on the issue of campus mental health, a topic also discussed during freshman convocation.