I was reading through some of the older posts on this blog, as one does. How quaint the earliest ones on the coronavirus now seem. I think the first is from the end of January, at which time I was well aware of the virus’s existence and was concerned chiefly about the irritation of wearing […]
Breathless
This morning I watched the video of George Floyd begging for his life, his life being crushed out of his body by a policeman’s. So, another death, another ‘I can’t breathe’ and America burns again. But this time it feels different. This time I hope it is different. That video has haunted me since I […]
Tidal rage
It has been striking to me, increasingly so over the past months, the voices that are absent in the West. Strangely, I feel they are more present in India, in Pakistan: I mean those who have been most affected by what is happening these days. I read of millions losing their jobs or being furloughed […]
Next steps
The GF and I are starting to think about our next steps. A month from now our commune will be dissolved (thank heavens) and we are considering where to go for our final month in Taiwan (however, however). The current frontrunner is Taitung, a sleepy southern town in beautiful countryside. And after that remains a […]
Sad Eid
A plane fell from the sky in Pakistan, it’ll be a sad Eid. Two survivors, which feels miraculous: one who returned to consciousness and groped towards a light and leapt off the plane wing before the fires reached him, the other flung out, still strapped into his seat, to emerge only with a broken bone […]
On intention
An aberrant musing on religion led me to think about the Islamic tenet that actions are judged by intentions and the central importance of intention – explicit if possible – in being good. I suppose it must be a response to the belief in predestination: what will happen is already written so for the purpose […]
Taipei heat wave
It’s the hottest May on record, says our Chinese language teacher. It is immensely hot and the flat has no movement of air. Our room has a large glassed bay window which gets full sun in the mornings, while the other rooms are dark. In the evening the thermostat in the bedroom reads 28 degrees, […]
Occlusion
The last couple of days I’ve had a bit of a dip, an occlusion of my normally sunny disposition. Partly due to physical reasons certainly, but also it was one of those periodic instances where the despair at where we are caught up with me. It will all eventually come to an end, and if […]
Weewaawaayoo
That was the title my much younger sibling, a toddler, gave to Oasis’s ‘Champagne Supernova’, it was one of her favourite songs at the time, as it was mine. I was not a toddler but a teenager, a startlingly naive and underexposed one, including to music which made me receptive to anything and everything regardless […]
Cry for help
In Italy they were singing from their balconies, in Iran they hung banners with verses from their windows. In Pakistan, at 10 at night, they go to their window or rooftop and call the azan at a time when the azan is never said, calling people to prayer to call to God for help. It […]