Category: History
-
R. In a Darker Light (con’d)
Amputee avengers have also been portrayed as ‘freaks’ to be ogled as much as mutiles to be feared or pitied… While I have never watched a martial arts film in entirety, apparently there is a sub-genre of such films featuring martial arts-trained amputees. In the standard plot (insofar as kung fu movies have plots), amputee…
-
P. Political Scraps (con’d)
As difficult as it is to be charitable to the vicious Christian right in America today––it is understandable that many white Christians long for a simpler past. Yet they seem willfully blind to any conflict of the mighty sword and the mightier dollar with old Protestant virtues. Nothing less reflects thrift and frugality than splendorous…
-
P. Political Scraps (intro.)
The news of the death of Ian Smith struck me with an unexpected ambivalence. The obit in the online Guardian (no doubt prepared years in advance) stated what was well known: that Smith had been a WWII fighter pilot and a farmer before becoming leader of the ultra-conservative Rhodesian Front. Then as Prime Minister of…
-
G. Travel Vignettes (con’d)
Among families dressed as Disney movie characters, our clothes seemed conspicuously drab. While pirates seemed to dominate, behind us was an Indiana Jones who gave us a once-over with the hard eyes of an Orange County cop. A moment afterwards he turned his head aside and mumbled into his collar. Noting that he was wearing…
-
D. Notes from Zimbabwe (intro.)
Introduction: It was in the midst of Tanzanian celebration of Zimbabwe’s independence in April 1980 that I was first attracted by the possibility of living in a free yet economically developed African country. The prospect came sooner than expected. In January 1982, I landed in (then) Salisbury, the capital city of Zimbabwe, with a 3-year…
-
C. Vignettes from Nigeria and Tanzania
Introduction: In 1977-1978, sponsored by a Canadian NGO, I taught in a boys’ boarding high school in northern Nigeria. Looking at my grainy 110 photos of that era, I am struck by just what a wildly colourful place it was. Nigeria, at that time, was in the midst of an oil boom. That boom financed…
Coprolites in Amber (etc.) 