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.
The unknown boy and finding hope in dark places Read More »
(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.
An airport cross-point in Brussels Read More »
(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.
Light and darkness on screen Read More »
(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.
Grab death and scream “mine!” And what does it turn into? Read More »
(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?
Hello, democracy? This is Africa calling. Again. Read More »
(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.
Where are the honest politicians? Read More »
(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 …
Celebrating Family Day (and all the things that means) Read More »
(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.
How a world with assisted suicide would look Read More »
