Kumusta from The Philippines, When Daryl Braithwaite was once co-opted to endorse a singing programme – encouraging more Australians to take up the art, I seem to remember – he opined, “Everybody can sing.” Yes, everyone can sing if they can talk – literally. Even stutterers can sing fluently. King George VI famously had his …Read More
Xin Chào from Điên Biên Phủ, When Lyndon Johnson was discussing war strategy with Robert McNamara and others during the Việt Nam War, he blurted out – in his inimitable style – “I don’t want no more Deen Been Foos.” He was saying that the big powers didn’t want any tinpot, upstart Third World country …Read More
Ni hao from Taiwan, Planet Earth is doomed; unmistakably, undeniably, inexorably doomed. Maybe it’s not completely stuffed just yet but we are heading over the cliff and there’s no sign of turning. One doesn’t need to visit Taiwan to know this, but a week here has confirmed the dread. consumerism When Europeans and …Read More
Ni hao from Taiwan, I don’t suppose it should be a great surprise to find a smaller, Asian version of America when I visit Taiwan. After all, that was pretty well Chiang Kai-Shek’s mission. Here in what is officially known as The Republic of China, there’s baseball, more fat people and more beggars, …Read More
Salem from Almaty, Kazakhstan, We Australians know how ill-informed stereotypes fall short of the reality. “You Australians have kangaroos hopping down the main street.” “In Australia, there are spiders and snakes everywhere.” And so on. Here in Kazakhstan, they suffered from a cruel representation by Sacha Baron Cohen in “Borat”, in which Kazakhs were portrayed …Read More
Salem from Almaty, Kazakhstan, We are here at a time of national mourning, after the death of Denis Ten, a young man who enjoyed the status of a national hero. The natural propensity of these people to smile has been subdued by a jolting shock to the national psyche. Denis Ten …Read More
Gamarjoba from The Black Sea, When a country decides to bank on tourism, there’s a certain list of prerequisites they need to have down pat. They need to prepare. tourism in Georgia Here we are in Georgia, yet another of the swathe of nations which declared themselves independent in the immediate aftermath of …Read More
Gamarjoba from The Caucasus Mountains, The Caucasus Mountains is where the bucolic rhythm of life is slow, where the hay is cut by groups of men bearing scythes, where the cows bring themselves down from the mountains with the first fall of snow and where the horses run with that staccato gait …Read More
Gamarjoba from The Caucasus Mountains, This is what Russian writer, Vissarion Belinsky wrote about the Caucasus Mountains about 150 years ago. “You will never look for anything quiet, funny or fun in a story; it usually begins with loud phrases and ends with massacre, betrayal and patricide.” …Read More
Labdien from Latvia, The mass media might be a necessary element of democratic society and, at times, a saviour. But let no-one fool themselves that the privately- owned media is as pure as the driven snow, free from bias, solely a force for good. During the Cold War, the western media were as guilty of …Read More