Newspaper columns Archives – Page 25 of 60

Home is a place of God’s differences

2 Comments / Newspaper columns, The Standard / May 23, 2016 / 2016, African culture, African university life, Christianity, Froese biography, Jesus Christ, race / 3 minutes of reading

(The UCU Standard – Monday, May 23, 2016)

MUKONO, UGANDA ✦ It was in Canada and we were at a campy lakeside retreat, and it was a beautiful summer day and a gaggle of children were playing outside the large window near where we ate.

My daughter, that is my adopted Ugandan daughter, Hannah, looked at me with a tear rolling down her cheek. I asked her what was the matter, and, looking down in shame, she said, “I’m the only black person here.”

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The mouse and the dishwasher

Leave a Comment / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / May 20, 2016 / 2016, dealing with a mouse in the house, humour, mobile phone rates, mobile phones, reverse culture shock, travel / 4 minutes of reading

(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, May 20, 2016)

HAMILTON, CANADA ✦ So it’s the middle of the night and my wife walks into the bedroom and says: “There’s a mouse in the dishwasher.”

This is strange even for our household, the sort of announcement that suggests my wife is hallucinating from working way too late, again, or that I’m having one of those dreams.

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The unknown boy and finding hope in dark places

Leave a Comment / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / May 6, 2016 / 2016, death, East-West relations, Europe's refugee crisis, Greece, homelessness, refugees, suffering, terrorism, travel / 4 minutes of reading

ATHENS ✦ I’ll never forget the unknown boy and his horrible end, not any more than I’ll forget Arash and his eyes on the day we met when the waters of the Mediterranean were cold.

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An airport cross-point in Brussels

Leave a Comment / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / April 22, 2016 / 2016, Brussels - Zaventum airport, Brussels terror attack 2016, media, news, social media, terrorism, travel / 4 minutes of reading

(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, April 22, 2016)

BRUSSELS-ZAVENTUM AIRPORT ✦ Once upon a time (otherwise known as “the old days,”) people would watch news on their old televisions, or listen on their old radios, or pick up old newspapers that even landed on their front porches (remember front porches?) with a thud.

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Light and darkness on screen

Leave a Comment / New Vision, Newspaper columns / March 22, 2016 / 2016, Christianity, spirituality, Star Wars, Star Wars The Force Awakens / 5 minutes of reading

(The New Vision – Tuesday, March 22, 2016)

KAMPALA, UGANDA ✦ It’s the foolish things of this world that can shame the wise and the weak that can upend the strong. This is how it was put a couple of millennia ago by the apostle Paul when he foreshadowed this great reversal, this deep sorting out that will be known only fully in the hereafter.

But it’s the story-tellers in the here-and-now who often say the very same thing, and you’d have to be blind or deaf or both not to see it in the new Star Wars movie, “Episode VII: The Force Awakens,” which recently made it here to Uganda.

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Grab death and scream “mine!” And what does it turn into?

Leave a Comment / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / March 19, 2016 / 2016, assisted suicide in Canada, assisted suicide worldwide, Canada's Bill C-41, death, doctor-assisted death, suffering / 4 minutes of reading

(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday March 19, 2016)

MUKONO, UGANDA ✦ It was getting late and she, my 12-year-old, sat on the couch and looked into the nothingness and pulled from the air a comment as plain and profound as any.

“You know,” she said, “People don’t know how good they have it.”

This is what happens when you live in Africa. You see things. Life. People. Suffering. Death sometimes. You get perspective.

“They don’t know,” Liz said. “People don’t know.” Canadians don’t know. This is what she said.

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Hello, democracy? This is Africa calling. Again.

2 Comments / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / March 3, 2016 / 2016, African politics, democracy in Africa, Uganda's election 2016, Ugandan politics, Yoweri Museveni / 4 minutes of reading

(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, March 3, 2016)

KAMPALA, UGANDA ✦ Hello? Hello? Can you hear me? Is this you? Democracy? It’s me, Africa, calling. Can we talk? About us? About our relationship? I mean, are you still interested?

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Where are the honest politicians?

Leave a Comment / Newspaper columns, The Standard / February 15, 2016 / 2016, Christianity, honesty in politics, poliiticians, politics / 3 minutes of reading

(The UCU Standard – Monday, February 15, 2016)

MUKONO, UGANDA ✦ Yoweri Museveni. Donald Trump. Jesus Christ. Who would you vote for? (Okay, if you find it too hard to imagine voting for Jesus per se, how about someone with Christ-like qualities?)

I mean, you can’t help but wonder what would happen if someone running for the presidency were to get up in front of microphones and cameras and scribblers and say something like this:

“If anyone running for this office doesn’t do so with the greatest fear and trepidation, shaking and trembling from the moment he leaves bed in the morning, then he’s a hopeless fool.

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