Landschlacht, Switzerland, 7 December 2016 “Those princes who do great things have considered keeping their word of little account and have known how to beguile men´s minds by shrewdness and cunning.” (Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince) What is truth? Above: Walter Seymour Allward´s Veritas (Truth) outside the Supreme Court of Canada, Ottawa, Canada What is fact?… Continue reading The Ministry of Truth 2084
Category: Literature
Strange bedfellows?
Landschlacht, Switzerland, 5 December 2016 The older one gets the more one realises that perception is everything. And in every country´s elections it is perception that determines the rise and fall of a nation´s ruling elite. Perception in American elections seems usually shaped by factors such as military records, marital status, religious adherance, place of origin,… Continue reading Strange bedfellows?
Oil and Blood in the Heartland 2: Home and Native Land
Brantford, Ontario, Canada, Summer 1992 I embarrassed myself. West of Hamilton and surrounded for the most part by farmland, Brantford is known for several things: It lays claim to the invention of the telephone, the birthplace of “The Great One” hockey player Wayne Gretzky, entertainer Phil Hartman, Group of Seven painter Lawren Harris, and a… Continue reading Oil and Blood in the Heartland 2: Home and Native Land
Walks of Life: The Apple and the Grape
Landschlacht, Canton Thurgau, Switzerland, 6 November 2016 It is true. I often feel quite critical of this country in which I have resided in these past six years. I criticize its government and its xenophobic policies. I criticize its people and their parochial ways. I criticize its economy with its soulless greed. But what I cannot find… Continue reading Walks of Life: The Apple and the Grape
Knowing
Landschlacht, Switzerland, 30 September 2016 We live in an age where it is difficult to know who or what to believe. We are bombarded by information, yet one can never feel certain whether that information is unbiased, objective or complete. We know more information than we need to about things that have little to do with… Continue reading Knowing
RIP Earth (or how I started worrying and learned to love science)
Landschlacht, Switzerland, 23 – 26 September 2016 As the few, but faithful, followers of my blog know, I am a freelance teacher of English as a second language here in Switzerland. So this position often finds me, on a regular basis, in situations that can be quite challenging. My latest challenge is an old foe… Continue reading RIP Earth (or how I started worrying and learned to love science)
Route 66 revisited
Landschlacht, Switzerland, 20 September 2016 Fifty years. Half a century has gone by since the Sixties, the decade of my birth, a truly Dickensian “best of times”/”worst of times” decade. What had been sowed, both good and evil, from the previous decade bore bittersweet harvest: apartheid produces the Sharpeville Massacre, Castro´s revolution leads to the Bay… Continue reading Route 66 revisited
Adam in the Abbey 3: The greater fool
Landschlacht, Switzerland, 17 – 20 September 2016 I have, up till recently, been an avid comic book reader and collector. And, sorry, DC comics, generally I have made mine Marvel. For it has been Marvel that struck upon the notion of making their heroes with feet of clay, rather than just Super aliens or vengeful billionaire Batman… Continue reading Adam in the Abbey 3: The greater fool
Adam in the Abbey 2: The Path of Benedict
16 September 2016, Landschlacht, Switzerland Two days ago I returned from a week´s sojourn in Turkey. (To be mentioned in future blog posts…) Today I am paying for it with symptoms that need not be described here, but suffice to say I am staying home and close to medicine chest and bedroom and water closet. But,… Continue reading Adam in the Abbey 2: The Path of Benedict
Adam in the Abbey 1: The Road to New Norcia
Landschlacht, Switzerland, 2 September 2016 / 15 September 2016 Homer once said that all men have need of the gods. And maybe this is so, for since time began we have sought a way to understand, and perhaps even influence, powerful natural phenomena, such as weather and the seasons, creation, life, death and its aftermath. There… Continue reading Adam in the Abbey 1: The Road to New Norcia