Sharifova Saidaxon Kamolliddinjon qizi was born on May 26, 2008, in the village of Kaldushon, Furqat District, Fergana Region, into an educated family.
In 2015, she was admitted to the 1st grade of Secondary School No. 21 in Furqat District, where she is currently an 11th-grade student.
In addition to school textbooks, she attends various extracurricular clubs. Saidaxon is fluent in conversational English. Despite her young age, she is the holder of more than 15 international and official certificates and has actively participated in numerous projects. Her poems have been published by the official publishing house Lulu Press Inc.
Gifted students are often seen as unstoppable achievers excelling in academics, skills, or creation. But behind the impressive grades and projects, many face burnout far earlier than expected. The reason? A mix of high expectations, perfectionism, and a constant push to stay “ahead.”
From a young age, gifted learners may be praised for their abilities rather than their effort. This can create pressure to always perform flawlessly, leaving little room for mistakes or self-discovery, and developing anxiety and fear from not reaching to others expectations. Add in heavy workloads, lack of social understanding from peers, and the fear of “not living up to potential,” and exhaustion sets in mentally, emotionally, and sometimes physically.
Helping them starts with balance. Schools and parents should focus on process over results, valuing curiosity and growth rather than constant output. Encouraging hobbies, downtime, and friendships outside of academic circles helps restore a sense of normalcy. Mentorship programs can also provide guidance from those who’ve navigated similar challenges.
Gifted students don’t just need harder problems to solve they need spaces to breathe, fail, and recharge. Supporting their well-being ensures their talents can grow sustainably, without burning out before their real journey begins.
My name is Jana Hossam, a passionate and driven student from Minya, Egypt, currently entering my final year of high school.
I’m the creator of GreenVolt — a plant-based electricity generator with IoT integration that provides clean, real-time monitored energy. I also developed the HEH System, a Smart Pavement project that converts heat, light, and motion into power.
As a facilitator, I teach more than 30 students and have interviewed over 100 participants from international programs. I’m also a freelancer in translation, writing, and minimalist logo design on Fiverr.
I actively participate in mentoring sessions, youth programs, and global initiatives like IRENA. With deep interests in tech, leadership, and education, I continue building a future that empowers young people — especially women — through innovation and impact.
Book Review of Breasts, etc. by Nthikeng Mohlele (TK).
Publisher: Blank Page Books
Reviewer: Bhekisisa Mncube
I have just finished reading a book with the curious title Breasts, etc. by TK, that enigma of our literary scene—perhaps not as reclusive as his (my) idol, J.M. Coetzee, but still a figure shrouded in intrigue. At first, the book read like an essay about breasts—women’s breasts, to be precise—though it was marketed as a novel. Midway through, the tempo quickened, and more characters emerged, fleeting yet integral participants in the narrative.
TK is incapable of writing ordinary British English or crafting a book with a straightforward plot and a neat, satisfying ending. He isn’t a master of prose in the conventional sense; instead, he is a poet, a lyricist whose carefully chosen words create music for the soul. His obsession with the apocalypse—a recurring theme in his dreams—imagines a world where femininity itself, breasts included, is obliterated. He imagines men hugging women’s scriptures, bored, lost without women, and also being the last living creatures on earth who will fall short of food and feed on rodents. Yet, paradoxically, this obsession with breasts and the apocalypse forms the foundation for a beautiful love story centred on a triangular dynamic, including his “first love”, Winnie. She is the first woman who introduced him (James) to bare breasts (no sex), which in turn gave him a fulfilling career in nude photography.
Though not declared overtly, this love of Winnie evokes André Brink’s sentiment in Before I Forget, where he muses that sometimes, “love is greater for being unfulfilled,” a mantra I live by. Our narrator, James, is a man fascinated by the female form, specifically the breasts, which he captures as a nude photographer. His art seeks to immortalise “a fleeting moment before the ravages of decay and old age” (emphasis mine). Against his ethical instincts, James falls in love with one of his subjects, Esmeralda Abedienne, a woman whose essence transcends mere physicality. It is a love story that transcends breast worshipping, old age, death and decay, not to mention the apocalypse that never occurred.
This is not simply a tale of breast worshipping; it is a meditation on love, mortality, and art. It is a story that defies the apocalypse, weaving themes of beauty, meaning of life, ageing and decay into a narrative of transcendence. Despite the author telling us, “Life is a voyage to the grave.” In Breasts, etc., TK has produced a feminist manifesto—replete with poetry, music, and restrained eroticism as the only appreciation of breasts, that frees the book from being fascinated with the sexual connotation of breasts. Thus, the book sidetracks criticism by the woke crowd, sex purists and literacy classification. Perhaps it is dystopian due to the recurrent dreams of the apocalypse. However, I can’t escape the cruel killing of Winnie’s husband (cause of death alcohol poisoning), whom the narrator never loved, referring to him as an “intellectual toad” and failed athlete. Notwithstanding the narrator displaying his “jealous lover” streak by taking literary liberty to kill a character who had, in his mind, outlived the usefulness of his existence, the novel is, indeed, a magnum opus.
-Mncube is an author of three acclaimed books (The Love Diary of a Zulu Boy, The Ramaphosa Chronicles and Kumnandi Emakhaya (children’s book), has contributed to five more and has submitted two children’s books for review this year alone. If he does not win awards for his columns (regular columnist at Daily Maverick, The Witness, and guest at News24 and City Press), he only talks to his two cats and drinks cold beers on weekends only.
Author Biography
Novelist, short story writer, playwright, Nthikeng Mohlele authored critically acclaimed novels and two short story collections. His work includes: The Scent of Bliss (2008), Small Things (2013), Rusty Bell (2014), Pleasure (2016), Michael K (2018), Illumination (2019), Breasts, etc. (2023), Revolutionaries House (2024). The two short-story collections, The Discovery of Love (2021) and A Little Light (2023).
Mohlele is the winner of the University of Johannesburg Main Prize for South African Writing In English for Pleasure, the K Sello Duiker Memorial Prize and was also long listed for the Dublin International Prize. The Discovery of Love won the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences Award 2022 for Best Fiction: Short Stories. Breasts, etc was recently shortlisted for both the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences and University of Johannesburg Main Prize Awards (2024). He dabbles in journalistic writing and literary reviews.
Mohlele’s theatre writing credits include and The Affairs of State and I Am A Woman, which debuted at the Market Theatre, one of South Africa’s mainstream theatre circuits during 2022. His work is taught at leading South African universities, including at his alma mater, the University of the Witwatersrand, the University of South Africa and University of Johannesburg and of Pretoria. Mohlele’s other interests include music, photography, technology, film and design. He lives and works in Johannesburg.
RESTORING TRUTH IN AMERICAN HISTORY: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order restoring truth and sanity to American history by revitalizing key cultural institutions and reversing the spread of divisive ideology.
President Trump aims to ensure that the Smithsonian is an institution that sparks children’s imagination, celebrates American history and ingenuity, serves as a symbol to the world of American greatness, and makes America proud.
The Order directs the Vice President, who is a member of the Smithsonian Board of Regents, to work to eliminate improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology from the Smithsonian and its museums, education and research centers, and the National Zoo.
The Order directs the Administration to work with Congress to ensure that future Smithsonian appropriations: (1) prohibit funding for exhibits or programs that degrade shared American values, divide Americans by race, or promote ideologies inconsistent with Federal law; and (2) celebrate women’s achievements in the American Women’s History Museum and do not recognize men as women.
The Vice President will work with congressional leaders to appoint members to the Smithsonian Board of Regents who are committed to advancing the celebration of America’s extraordinary heritage and progress.
The Order also directs the Secretary of the Interior restore Federal parks, monuments, memorials, statues, markers, or similar properties that have been improperly removed or changed in the last five years to perpetuate a false revision of history or improperly minimize or disparage certain historical figures or events.
In preparation for the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 2026, the Order directs the Secretary of the Interior to complete restorations and improvements to Independence Hall by that date.
COMBATING CORROSIVE IDEOLOGY: In the last decade, Americans have witnessed a concerted effort to rewrite American history and force our nation to adopt a factually baseless ideology aimed at diminishing American achievement. President Trump is fighting back by reestablishing truth in the historical narrative and restoring Federal sites dedicated to American heritage.
The prior administration pushed a divisive ideology that reconstrued America’s promotion of liberty as fundamentally flawed, infecting revered institutions like the Smithsonian and national parks with false narratives.
At Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, the Biden Administration sponsored training by an organization that advocates for dismantling “Western foundations” and that taught Park Rangers that their racial identity should dictate how they present history to visitors.
The Smithsonian Institution—once revered throughout the world as a symbol of American excellence—has recently promoted divisive ideology that American and Western values are harmful.
The American Art Museum currently features an exhibit that purports to address how “sculpture has been a powerful tool in promoting scientific racism” and claims that the United States has “used race to establish and maintain systems of power, privilege, and disenfranchisement.”
The National Museum of African American History and Culture has proclaimed that “hard work,” “individualism,” and “the nuclear family” are aspects of “White culture.”
The American Women’s History Museum plans to celebrate male athletes participating in women’s sports.
CELEBRATING AMERICAN GREATNESS: President Trump is committed to honoring America’s extraordinary heritage and building a sense of national pride.
President Trump signed an Executive Order on his first day in office to establish a task force to prepare for America’s 250th birthday.
This Order also protects America’s monuments from vandalism and calls for construction of the National Garden of American Heroes.
President Trump signed a memorandum ensuring Federal buildings reflect the timeless grandeur of traditional, classical architecture.
By signing this Executive Order, President Trump is ensuring that American history is celebrated accurately, fairly, and with pride—honoring the remarkable progress, liberty, and ingenuity that define our great nation.
Meanwhile, In The Real World, You Can Be Fired For Going To The Doctor
Meanwhile
In the real world
You can be fired
For going to the doctor.
the worker’s bosses.
Can refuse to let workers
go to the appointment.
As they are not required
To grant them leave
sick leave.
Bad for the bottom line
And they have no empathy
For workers.
Who are seen as
Merely disposable, interchangeable
Labor units of production.
Who should be replaced
By robots
as soon as possible.
People will be given a choice.
Go to work, gravely ill.
Or go to the EER.
And six hours later
Perhaps see an overwhelmed doctor
And told me to follow up.
With your primary care doctor.
Who the hell knows.
Who that is any more?
You get the bill
10,000 dollars,
Pay up sucker!
No money?
Not my problem.
And go back to find.
You have been fired.
For leaving or not showing
Up for your shift.
Doctors visit?
That’s not my problem.
You are going to die.
So be it.
We can find other workers.
Or robots to take your place.
Loser.
President Al Wilson Reverses Course on Climate Change, From Denial to Action in the Wake of National Catastrophe
With the destruction of most of Florida—including Mar-a-Lago— Monster storms ravaging Texas, And Los Angeles reduced to ash By earthquake and fire,
President Al Wilson finally decided: Climate change is real. It is killing people— Especially in red states
. The costs of rebuilding are horrific. The costs of doing nothing? Even worse.
His advisors, once cautious, now urgent, Convinced him to embrace
a rapid shift to green energy. Solar, wind, geothermal—no longer fringe, Now the backbone of survival.
And beyond Earth,
Plans accelerate for lunar and Martian colonies, With NASA’s bioregenerative greenhouses already in prototype.
Underground cities, domed habitats—once sci-fi, Now contingency plans.
Wilson must work with the world. Not just to lead, But to redeem.
If he fails, And the world turns
into a hellscape man created,
History will remember him As the worst leader
in human memory.
But if he succeeds— If he reverses course, And actually solves the problem—
He could be hailed As the savior of humanity.
Doing something to change the future Is good politics.
Continued climate denialism Is bad politics.
And so, He reverses course.
MAGA Dreams Come True
President AL Wilson
Had a dream
The MAGA dream
Coming true!
This time will be different
The internet and AI
Will be used
To make sure
That MAGA rules
And Christian values
Take over.
LGBT folks
Back in the closet
Where they beyond.
Women’s rights curtailed
Minorities deported.
Media tamed
The public distracted
By the latest fake
Celebrity scandal.
The rich live very well
With robot servants
Self-driving vehicles
Great health care.
Maybe even cloned body parts
But the poor
Will barely live
But who cares about them?
MAGA, Baby
The real scandal
The taking over
Of democracy
By the oligarchs
Not talked about.
The secret camps
Filled with people
Who disappear.
Climate change well the rich
Can live on
In walled off
underground shelters.
The rest of the public
Who cares?
And so it goes
Democracy dies
In broad daylight
MAGA baby!
John (“Jake”) Cosmos Aller is a novelist, poet, and retired U.S. Foreign Service officer who served in ten countries. Prior to joining the State Department, he taught overseas for eight years and served in the Peace Corps in Korea. He currently divides his time between Korea and the United States. His poetry blog can be found at https://theworldaccordingtocosmos.com.
Before things turned bad, Jason’s father taught him to shave against the grain. The blade might draw blood, but the results were closer.
Jason’s stepfather shrugged. “With the grain works too.” Stepfathers could be replaced, he knew, so he went easy.
During this month’s prison visit, Jason’s father slid his son’s hand across his newly smooth skull. “Nobody can grab my hair,” he said. “You should try it.”
Jason’s stepfather drove him there every month and waited in the parking lot. It was the least he could do since the boy lost his mother in a way no one should.
Boughs build archways as tips of trees touch each other. What was shaded green becomes nocturnal shadow. A crescent moon hangs from heaven. Light tracing foliage falls dropping dusty deep upon ground.
Secrets lie inside edged shadows. Animals hide under darkness resounding through night as leaves rustle. All changing except this pattern of what is now formed.
