Category World Affairs
Refugees III – We Are One
Theoretically I am back home, though it is tough to say for sure since I am posting this before I leave. With the effects of jet lag expected and no time to write while I was gone, I thought i should have something ready to go, so I held off on posting this song before […]
March For Life I – Parliament Hill
Today they have come from all over Canada. This afternoon they will converge on Parliament Hill in an attempt once again to get federal politicians to listen. Most politicians will avoid them as if they have bubonic plague. Their message is politically toxic. Thousands are taking part today in the annual National March For Life. […]
The Adulterers
I saw the article, a stub in my daily paper, so I went online for more information. South Korea has changed its laws and no longer will adulterers face criminal charges. Those found guilty could have been sentenced to up to two years in prison. I have mixed feelings about the state getting involved in […]
V.E. Day
On the television news all week you have probably seen them. Old men, their chests covered in medals, on the streets of Holland, there to celebrate the anniversary of the Liberation and to visit the graves of their fallen comrades, one last time. Seventy years ago today the guns fell silent in Europe with the […]
Remembering Kent State
Forty-five years later their names are a footnote to history. But I remember them. May 4, 1970, Kent State University. A student protest against American expansion of the Vietnam war into neighboring Cambodia left four people dead, shot by the Ohio National Guard who had been called in to maintain order on the campus, To […]
Refugees II – Dadaab
It was one paragraph on the back page of my newspaper, out of proportion to the human suffering about to take place. I had to look on the internet to find out more. The Kenyan government had ordered the United Nations to close the Dadaab refugee camp, home to almost 400,000 Somalian exiles. You may […]
Refugees I – The Flight Out
Twenty-five years ago today I became a refugee. Technically I suppose I still am one. We’ve never gone back. In April 1990 we were living in Monrovia, capital of Liberia (West Africa if you need to find it on a map). A civil war had started on Christmas Eve. Government troops seemed mostly ineffective, and […]
Is Tradition Important?
Who cares about tradition? The Pope misses his late night pizza runs, which I guess is his tradition. In a recent interview the Pope Francis I revealed that he doesn’t expect to be pope for very long, maybe three to five years. He has already been sitting on St. Peter’s throne for two. And thus […]
The Un-Canadian
Ted Cruz has declared his candidacy for the Republican Party nomination for the 2016 American presidential election. He is unlikely to win. He is the first to declare his candidacy. Voting day is still 20 months away. Historically those who declare first don’t capture the prize. I suspect party members become tired of them over […]
Buyukada Orphanage
I wrote about visiting one of the Princes Islands in Istanbul, and my interest in the abandoned building at the top of the hill. I recently discovered there is more to the story of that abandoned orphanage than what I learned on the trip. It has fairly recently been part of an important court case. […]
random thoughts from lorne 
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