Many a magazine and newspaper I see in the shops, almost every post I see on Facebook, much of what I hear and see on the TV, all seem convinced that the Friday 13 November attack on Paris demands a response. Fighting fever and fervor has swept the West and much of the message is not whether the Islamic State should… Continue reading Raising Cain
Category: Uncategorized
Brave New World / Meanwhile…
Recent statistic… There are now more mobile phones on the planet than there are people. The World Wide Web continues to grow at staggering rates, with millions of websites, hundreds of thousands of categories, in most of the world´s languages, serving at least half of humanity. Meanwhile- 24,000 people die every day from hunger. 3/4 of… Continue reading Brave New World / Meanwhile…
Giving Thanks
For Canadians a typical aspect of what we label as “American” is the tendency to steal the credit for someone´s idea. So often Americans have the notion that if something is a great idea then it must have been America that came up with it. Now, there is no denying that the United States has… Continue reading Giving Thanks
Arguing with the gatekeepers
I´ve been reading Mark Hertsgaard´s The Eagle´s Shadow: Why America Fascinates and Infuriates the World and what follows is a combination of his thoughts alongside my own. It is always difficult to argue with the right or conservatives of America. It is often difficult to debate or discuss with many an “average” American. Americans, for… Continue reading Arguing with the gatekeepers
Canada Slim and The Poet´s Path
“Insidious forces are marshalled against the time, space and will to walk and against the version of humanity that act embodies. One force is the filling-up…”the time in between”, the time of walking to or from a place, of meandering, of running errands. That time has been deplored as a waste, reduced and its remainder… Continue reading Canada Slim and The Poet´s Path
For God, Prince and Fatherland: The Principality of Liechtenstein
Today I was truly a stranger in a strange land… I visited, for the purpose of finding work, the Principality of Liechtenstein, only two hours’ distance by train from my own wee village by the Lake of Constance. Liechtenstein is a landlocked German-speaking constitutional microstate monarchy sandwiched between the Rhine River and the Alps, between… Continue reading For God, Prince and Fatherland: The Principality of Liechtenstein
We´ll always have Paris (2): Some thoughts
Since the summer of 2014, ISIS has transformed the politics of the Middle East. These jihad fighters combine fanaticism with military expertise and have won spectacular and unexpected victories against Iraqi, Syrian and Kurdish forces. ISIS has spread from Iraq’s border with Iran to Iraqi Kurdistan and to the outskirts of Aleppo, the largest city… Continue reading We´ll always have Paris (2): Some thoughts
Life among the Winti
Living in the shadows can be a mixed blessing. For example, my cousin is a world class athlete who has qualified for the Olympics, ran in the Commonwealth Games, and is presently raising money for children as he runs and rolls across Canada, so while I proudly boast of my connection to my cousin, I… Continue reading Life among the Winti
Canada Slim and the Briar Patch City
Welcome to “the Writing Room of Europe”, or as I like to call it “the waiting room of Europe”. St. Gallen is the city in which I work both as a ESL teacher and a Starbucks barista. It is a city where I still wait for my professional dreams to come true, yet seem to… Continue reading Canada Slim and the Briar Patch City
Happy Hallowe’en
Hallowe’en (short for hallowed evening or holy evening, because it is the night before All Saints’ Day, November 1) is a strange thing. Children go outdoors into the darkening streets which they are normally not encouraged to do. They go door to door to visit strangers that they are told to normally avoid. They ask… Continue reading Happy Hallowe’en