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Tag Archives: Africa

A Hitch in time

Sunday, May 15, 2022

On the late, great Christopher Hitchens, and the role the Falklands may have played in his political development. — For The Critic

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged 9/11, Admiral Graf von Spee, Adolf Hitler, Afghanistan, Alexander Haig, Argentina, Barack Obama, Battle Day, Borges, Britain, Caspar Weinberger, Christopher Hitchens, coffee, Commander Eric Hitchens, conservatives, Cossacks, Covid, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Cyprus, Denis MacShane, Falklands Radio, football, Goose Green, Hector Timerman, Holland, Human Rights Watch, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jacobo Timerman, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Jews, Jorge Videla, Journalism, La Opinion, Lebanon, Lincoln's Inn, Lt Nick Taylor, Margaret Thatcher, Nazis, New York, Nicholas Henderson, Palestine, Robert Cox, Ronald Reagan, Salman Rushdie, terrorism, The Critic, The Falklands War, the Inquisition, the Junta, the left wing, the Mediterranean, The Nation, The New Statesman, the Pacific, the Royal Navy, The Spectator, the UN, the Union Jack, Ukraine, Washington DC, WWI, WWII | Comments (0)

News At A Glance #3

Friday, April 15, 2022

More or less news more-or-less concerning Lord Salisbury, Quakers, and Chaldaean numerology. — For The Emigre

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged Americans, Australia, big mamas, cars, Chaldaea, China, death, gold, Guildenstern, lighthouses, Lord Salisbury, maps, March, mental health, natural resources, Nelson Evening Mail, news, numerology, Old Norse, Patrick Watts, Princeton, Quakers, Rosencrantz, satire, Siberia, soup, swearing, The Emigre, the Supreme Court, vitals | Comments (0)

Aguê the Sinister, also called Azizan

Sunday, May 17, 2020

Among the Ewe people of Togo (formerly Togoland), the village of Bé lies at the foot of the Tokoin plateau, between a stagnant lagoon and a sacred wood, the meagre remnant of an ancient equatorial forest that once covered the south of the country in its entirety. Here, the animist bokonon priests and priestesses of the python cult worship the forces of […]

Filed in Fictions | Also tagged animism, Borges, clothing, Dahomey, fear, Greenland, James Kirkup, Post-modern Bestiary, religion, sadness, snakes, Tété-Michel Kpomassie, Togo, translation | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, May 11, 2020

. One’s past is what one is. It is the only way by which people should be judged. — The Nelson Evening Mail, Wednesday, August 29 1906 . Globalisation is going into reverse. The (great) auk became extinct because he forgot how to fly. Your underpants contain cellulose. In the medieval period, walking through a labyrinth or […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged aristocracy, auks, Australia, chemistry, clothing, crime, death, diamonds, Europe, fear, genealogy, globalisation, Greenland, Herodotus, history, hunting, Jeff Bezos, Jerusalem, keyboards, labyrinths, money, Nelson Evening Mail, poker, satire, the Bible, the Koran, walking | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, November 6, 2017

. The average salary of professors at Dublin University is £530. — The Nelson Evening Mail, March 14 1907 . The persecution of Christians is now worse than at any time in history. Toto’s ‘Africa’ is one of Myleene Klass’s all-time favourites. The Hillsborough disaster is still in the news. Simon Bolivar, a Venezuelan military and […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged betting, Ceylon, China, Christmas, Colombia, culture, Dublin, education, employment, fear, finance, football, grindstones, Hillsborough, homosexuality, jerk-jobs, Kevin Spacey, Legoland, Leonard Woolf, music, Myleene Klass, Nelson Evening Mail, newspapers, novels, persecution, politics, radio, religion, revolution, sex, Simon Bolivar, Toto, trees, Venezuela, Virginia Woolf, war, Windsor | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, February 20, 2017

. In many parts of Africa gin is the only currency. — The Nelson Evening Mail, January 6 1909 . James Ramsay MacDonald became Prime Minister of Great Britain three times. Water is a better conductor of sound than air. A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged acting, agriculture, books, Britain, crime, drink, fishing, geography, horses, ice hockey, law, Led Zeppelin, Liechtenstein, liquorice, Paul Auster, physics, poets, political correctness, politics, Ramsay MacDonald, Ravel, Socrates, Teletubbies, the Swiss, unicorns, virgins, waste management | Comments (0)

Biograffiti

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

from the index of a popular anthology* U. A. FANTHORPE was born in Kent. BILLY COLLINS is the author of six books of poetry including… Taking Off Emily Dickinson’s Clothes. IAN MCMILLAN is poet-in-residence for Barnsley FC. TOMAS TRANSTRÖMER… suffered a serious stroke which left his speech impaired and his right side paralysed…. [He] continues to […]

Filed in Non-fictions | Also tagged Barnsley FC, Billy Collins, books, boxing, Carol Ann Duffy, Emily Dickinson, Fiji, football, Gordon Highlanders, health, Ian McMillan, Kent, Normandy, Owen Sheers, piano, Poetry, poets, Tomas Tranströmer, UA Fanthorpe, Vernon Scannell, war | Comments (0)

theASHtray, vol.7

Saturday, March 17, 2012

From the arts desk at the end of the universe, reflections on Douglas Adams, Erwin Schrödinger, Joseph Kony, YouTube, Ian McKellen, Stephen Fry, Bilbo Baggins, Saul Zaentz, trademark and copyright law, Lewis Hyde, Amy Winehouse, Florence Welch, Queens of the Stone Age, MUSE, Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgård, and the many and various meanings of Liff. […]

Filed in column, Journalism | Also tagged Amy Winehouse, Bilbo Baggins, comedy, Douglas Adams, Erwin Schrödinger, film, Florence Welch, Ian McKellen, Joseph Kony, law, Lewis Hyde, literature, MUSE, music, Pierce Brosnan, Queens of the Stone Age, Saul Zaentz, Spotify, Stellan Skarsgård, Stephen Fry, theartsdesk, YouTube | Comments (0)

Same, same

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

I buy books on Africa the same way my mother buys books on Ireland. (I don’t read them the same way.)

Filed in Non-fictions | Also tagged books, Ireland, micro-non-fiction, Mother | Comments (0)

A Ghanaian election

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

How much do you remember about the Ghanaian presidential run-off of 2008? Hm? No? Fair enough. Me neither. And there’s a reason for that. But Jarreth Merz does. The Swiss documentary-maker spent three hectic months on the campaign trail, the better that we might understand – and he’s put it all down in his film, […]

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged film, Ghana, Jerry Rawlings, politics, theartsdesk | Comments (0)