Category: History

Canada Slim and the Apostle of Violence

Landschlacht, Switzerland, 14 September 2017 “History is little more than the register of the crimes, follies and misfortunes of mankind.” (Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire) Above: Edward Gibbon (1737 – 1794) “I believe that are monsters born in the world to human parents. Some you can see. And… Continue reading Canada Slim and the Apostle of Violence

Canada Slim and the Evil Road

9 September 2017, Landschlacht, Switzerland I am determined to not write myself into too predictable a rut. There have been a number of themes running through the posts of this blog since I started it back on 18 May 2015. I have written of many things: my travels in Switzerland and abroad, topics currently relevant at the time… Continue reading Canada Slim and the Evil Road

Canada Slim and the Lure of Italian Journeys

Landschlacht, Switzerland, 4 September 2017 It´s not that Switzerland isn´t inspirational. It is. It has inspired Anita Brookner’s Hotel du Lac and Albert Cohen’s Her Lover. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein here and Lord Byron The Prisoner of Chillon. From Julius Caesar to Jean Jacques Rousseau, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and John Le Carré, Hermann Hesse and Patricia Highsmith… Continue reading Canada Slim and the Lure of Italian Journeys

Canada Slim and the Great Explorer

Landschlacht, Switzerland, 24 August 2017 Let me begin with an apology or two. Much time has gone by since I started this blog and I feel like a negligent parent towards this activity and the few folks who read this blog. Life has been busy and it has been complicated, but let´s try to recapture the muse… Continue reading Canada Slim and the Great Explorer

Canada Slim and the Forgotten

Landschlacht, Switzerland, 30 May 2017 Marriage ain’t easy. “My successful marriage is built on mistakes. It may be founded on love, trust and a shared sense of purpose, but it runs on cowardice, impatience, ill-advised remarks and low cunning. But also: apologies, belated expressions of gratitude and frequent appeals for calm. Every day is a… Continue reading Canada Slim and the Forgotten

Canada Slim and the Greatest Villain

Landschlacht, Switzerland, 26 May 2017 I read the news and I feel sometimes that all the media seems to report is bad news – news that angers or saddens me. To be fair, it’s not the media’s fault completely… Bad things happen in the world. It is a terrible thing to admit, but nothing encourages us to… Continue reading Canada Slim and the Greatest Villain

Canada Slim and the Great Expedition

Landschlacht, Switzerland, 25 May 2017 We live in an age where we take for granted many things and we only seem to question things when they don’t happen as we think they should. We live in an age where we casually accept what is, without questioning how it came to be. The older I get,… Continue reading Canada Slim and the Great Expedition

Canada Slim and the Final Problem

Landschlacht, Switzerland, 17 May 2017 They almost have lives and yet we cannot forget them, for they haunt us in the worlds of literature, film, TV, advertising and video games. Ours is a world inhabited by Sherlock Holmes and Indiana Jones, Wonder Woman and Darth Vader, Santa Claus and Cinderella, James Bond and Harry Potter. They… Continue reading Canada Slim and the Final Problem

Bullets and ballots

Landschlacht, Switzerland, 20 April 2017 On Easter Sunday, the Turkish people had an election and chose to support President Recep Erdogan by a slim minority of votes. (3% victory margin) Depending on who you listen to, this means that either the President has now received a mandate to exercise unbridled power or he can now make democratic… Continue reading Bullets and ballots