As my modest contribution to the forthcoming Canadian election, I present nine items that suggest Stephen Harper is not a friend to democracy.
Dion-Baiting
When Stéphane Dion questioned the effectiveness of our strategy in Afghanistan, the Prime Minister accused him of being “pro-Taliban.” Last week, Harper said Dion was actually wishing for a recession. It’s a […]

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My feature on Turkey’s recent turmoil appears in the current issue of The Walrus. You can read the entire text online here. Also check out Carolyn Drake’s accompanying photo essay on Hasankeyf, an historic, predominantly Kurdish town in Turkey’s southeast potentially living out its last days. The entire area is slated to be flooded when […]

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Currently in Ghana, doing more research for the book and working at some magazine articles, mostly to do with food security and chieftaincy issues. Meanwhile, attending to final details on a Turkey feature I have upcoming in next issue of The Walrus.
The piece is based on research done last October and November, and then more […]

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Presently in the preparatory stages of a research trip to China—journalist visa approved!—but I’m beginning to have second thoughts whether I should even bother. I can’t remember in my lifetime (post 1970, eh?) a country this wall-to-wall covered by Western media.
When has a single nation ever generated this scale of fascination and fear in the […]

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My recent piece about what’s in store for Guyana’s rainforest touched on the issue of carbon cap & trade markets and whether they can effectively reduce emissions globally. Especially when it comes to conserving the world’s remaining tropical forests. Here’s a piece in last week’s New Yorker worth reading, even if it glosses over the […]

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In October 1980, Salih Sezgin was an illiterate seventeen-year-old when he was incarcerated in Diyarbakir prison, Turkey’s most notoriously brutal penitentiary. The military high command had just staged a coup dissolving the government. Many Turks welcomed the army’s intervention due the rising tide of political violence (committed by leftists & rightists) and economic instability that […]

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Currently in Istanbul, shortly on my way to Diyarbakir and the country’s southeast—the predominantly Kurdish region adjacent to the northern Iraq border that is so much in the news of late.
I have been researching here for the past couple weeks, so please excuse the lack of posting. Current events have taken me on […]

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Back in Canada, going through my Guatemala research, and wondering why I must wait an entire week between the resolution of the Stanley Cup’s Conference Finals and its celebrated final round (featuring my predicted match-up, Ottawa v. Anaheim). Meaning there’s no game this Saturday.
One wonders at the connection between this desperate eagerness to watch playoff […]

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Greetings from Guatemala City, where I am currently finishing up close to a month´s worth of research for the book. The city itself is worth some investigation despite the dire warnings of the guidebooks and the almost complete absence of any foreign tourists. The largest, most cosmopolitan city in Central America, it´s sprawling, chaotic, often […]

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It’s been almost a month since I dismounted from the snowmobile and my hands are still numb. The persistent vibration from gripping the handlebars have given me arthritis. One must get back into the swing of things, however, and so here are four interesting postings elsewhere of note.
CHAD—Photographer and fellow traveller Don Weber, now based […]

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