Newspaper columns Archives – Page 26 of 60

Celebrating Family Day (and all the things that means)

Leave a Comment / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / February 13, 2016 / 2016, Family Day, family life, Froese biography, home, The Prodigal Son, travel / 4 minutes of reading

(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, February 13, 2016)

MUKONO, UGANDA ✦ It was over lunch in Dundas with my sister, somewhere between the spring rolls and the coconut shrimp, when the question came without any hint to suggest this would be one of those ‘aha’ moments that can be unpacked and looked at and handled for a lifetime.

“So of all the places you’ve been,” she asked, “what’s your favourite?”

I might have said Paris or Berlin or Seoul, or maybe Amsterdam or London or Istanbul, or maybe somewhere in the Mid-East or Africa …

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How a world with assisted suicide would look

3 Comments / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / February 1, 2016 / 2016, death, doctor-assisted suicide, human rights, suffering, The Giver / 4 minutes of reading

(The Hamilton Spectator – Monday, February 1, 2016)

It’s 2049 and I’m an old man. I’ve made my decision. (At least I thought I made it.) It’s for release.

I’ve been given a choice in a pleasant manner for an injection or capsules. Soon this will all be over, another release into elsewhere, into eternity.

They’re out there, opinion polls on this procedure, on “release,” what in your day was called “doctor-assisted suicide.” Apparently most people are in favour. You have to wonder, though, about the questions.

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No matter how desperate, we are not alone in this world

Leave a Comment / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / January 4, 2016 / 2016, African culture, Christmas, home, lost children, poverty, refugees, the road / 4 minutes of reading

(The Hamilton Spectator – Monday, January 4, 2016)

MUKONO, UGANDA ✦ It was evening and dark and dozens of voices, mostly African, by candlelight and under bright stars, were singing carols in front of our long-time East African home.

It was a moment to reflect on the days ending 2015, and a moment, also, when I was asked to say a word.

“So where does everyone go at Christmas?” I asked the kids more than anyone.

“Home!” they yelled into the night air.

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Caught between health care and (the worst parts of) religion

Leave a Comment / New Vision, Newspaper columns / December 12, 2015 / 2015, African culture, C-Sections, caesarian section in Uganda, caesarian sections in Africa, health care in Uganda, maternal mortality, religiosity, Women's rights / 5 minutes of reading

(The New Vision – Saturday, December 12, 2015)

MUKONO, UGANDA ✦ She questioned if having the surgery was “God’s will,” but the truth is that she was afraid and misguided and besides her own safety, she was leaving her unborn child’s life to hang dangerously in the balance.

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The spirited ways of Pope Francis

1 Comment / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / December 5, 2015 / 2015, African culture, Christianity, Pope Francis, Pope Francis in Africa, poverty, spirituality / 4 minutes of reading

(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, December 5, 2015)

KAMPALA, UGANDA ✦ I am not Catholic.

And, like you, I have my images of fatherhood.

The better ones have more to do with the holiness of, say, my boy with a ball and a catching glove on our sun-filled front lawn than with the Holy Father coming to visit.

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The winds of political change blowing hard

Leave a Comment / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / November 7, 2015 / 2015, Istanbul, journalism, travel, Turkey, Turkish politics / 4 minutes of reading

(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, November 7, 2015)

ISTANBUL, Turkey ✦ This starts in Hamilton where I was driving to my local polling station amidst dead leaves blowing everywhere, as hard as the winds of political change.

It was the first time in 14 years I was around in the fall to see the trees lose their lifeblood, a moment in time, even as we all, after our simple X on a paper put in a cardboard box, watched change blow into Ottawa.

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A hope in hell

Leave a Comment / Christian Courier, Newspaper columns / October 12, 2015 / 2015, Christianity, free choice, hell, Jesus Christ, Jesus in hell, spirituality / 3 minutes of reading

(Christian Courier, October 12, 2015)

MUKONO, UGANDA ✦ They’re out there, people who’d say that they don’t believe in hell any more than they believe in heaven, but you can never be sure what anyone really thinks about these sorts of questions because you can hardly expect anyone to be honest with you when they don’t know how to be honest with themselves.

Your neighbour might say that it’s nothing but malarkey – heaven, hell, God, the devil, the entire lot of it (this is the 21st century, after all) – but he’d tell you that he doesn’t believe in gravity, yet his disbelief doesn’t run so deep that he’d actually step off a tall building.

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Life is in the small pleasures, the simple moments

2 Comments / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / September 26, 2015 / 2015, dogs, dogs in Africa, faithfulness, family life, German Shepherds, pets, small pleasures, the good life / 4 minutes of reading

(The Hamilton Spectator, Saturday, September 26, 2015)

MUKONO, UGANDA ✦ Our dog, Zak, is a fine-looking German shepherd with a deep bark and a good name. (I mean, if your name is all you can ever fully own, surely that’s true for dogs too.)

He’s wary of strangers and, I suspect, would give his life if called to. He has a funny relationship with his food, never uses his doghouse, (preferring our back door), and loves rolling in the morning dew.

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