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Browsing All Posts filed under »Commentary & News«
Travel notes: things I noticed in Mumbai
March 10, 2013
This post isn’t really a post, just a collection of observations from 3 days in Bombay. Squeezed onto seven islands, each with a hazy high rise skyline, bordered by litter strewn beaches and breakers. Battered old non-AC taxis and rickshaw rides through busy roads like a street car rally. The constant symphony of car horns […]
Why Monocle radio is the saviour of travel-starved global citizens
November 30, 2012
It’s Friday night and I’m sat in my dining room. I’ve just finished a bowl of homemade spicy parsnip soup, the kitchen still looks like a grenade has hit it, and my blood pressure is steadily returning to normal after a too-hectic week; soothed by the prospect of the food and friend filled weekend ahead. […]
The Path to Peace in the Middle East? A Documentary Review
May 13, 2012
In a packed cinema in Tel Aviv, the screen is filled with the image of Adriaan Vlok, South Africa’s former Minister for Law and Order, washing the feet of a grief stricken mother whose son’s death he ordered (one of the “Mamelodi 10“), during the Apartheid years, while saying “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry for […]
Athens Now! Tourist reflections on riots and ruins
February 17, 2012
Hi everyone, here’s a quick video blog on how things are in Athens right now from a tourist’s perspective. I should say that minutes after finishing this I walked through Syntagma Square and saw the riot police/army gearing up again, so perhaps things are not as quiet as they have first seemed. Also, sorry for […]
The Intellectual Particle Accelerator that was TEDxManchester
February 14, 2012
We are 3 talks into TEDxManchester and Tara Shears is giving us a crash course in advanced particle physics. On the screen is a giant animation of particles smashing together in the Hadron Collider at CERN, and she is talking and gesturing enthusiastically about how this is part of the scientific community’s ongoing quest to find that God(damn) […]
Interview: A guide for visiting Palestine
December 16, 2011
Every day, Fred Schlomka’s Green Olive tour company picks up a car full of Jerusalem tourists and guides them through the Separation Wall into the Palestinian West Bank, visiting refugee camps, social enterprises and – in what’s been seen by some as a controversial move – settler communities. Having joined one of these tours earlier […]
The Ahava Protests: A Victory for BDS?
April 23, 2011
On the sunny April afternoon I’m invited to check out the fortnightly protest against Ahava’s Covent Garden store, it’s clear that this week – perhaps more than most weeks – emotions are running high. It is just one day after the body of peace activist Vittorio Arrigoni was found by Hamas forces in an abandoned […]
Separation, Settlements and Guerilla Graffiti: The West Bank in Pictures
April 8, 2011
With construction beginning in 2003, the Israeli authorities erected the 8m concrete wall with incredible speed. It’s aim, they say, is to help stop Palestinian suicide bombings on Israeli soil. Since then, the number of attacks has declined by more than 90%. However, the wall makes life for many Palestinians even more difficult. For a […]
Cautious optimism? What Egyptians are saying about the revolution
February 16, 2011
I have spent the past 5 days in a quiet, peaceful corner of Egypt, where the only real signs that a revolution has occurred is the fact that is very little money left in any of the cash machines. It seems the country pretty much ground to a halt over the past three weeks, and […]
About Border Skipping
The Border Skipping blog aims to help you (and me) explore the places where the action is happening.
Mali: Please don’t stop the music
June 2, 2013
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When world music super-group Tinariwen took the Barbican stage last November, typically dressed in traditional Sahara sand-shielding scarves and clutching electric guitars set to ‘blues’, the audience knew they were about to see something special. People shuffled forward on their seats, whooping and clapping. The lady in front of us leaned over to her friend’s […]