I’ve never understood to what to attribute the prevalence of gold-capped teeth in Northeastern Nicaragua. For some, it seems like a fashion statement. For others, it seems the last line of defense against the total loss of dental capacity, a life restricted to mashed cassava and gummable beans. The truck driver was somewhere in the…
The Places
The Places
Border Towns: First Foreign Journalist in Blaine
by Sean •
The spell of Liberation, a narcotic with which the world over dreams of acquiescing their souls, was cast upon Blaine today. In our convoy we crossed the border under heavy protection and witnessed the Birth of a Society, a City, a Nation; these proud men and women have thrown off the yoke of oppressive imperialistic…
The Places
Congo: Rugabo Revisited
by Lee Ridley •
Twenty one months after my initial meeting with Rugabo, in August 1995, he made international headline news when his body was discovered, shot dead along with an adult female. The motive appeared to be kidnap as the poachers had made off with a baby gorilla, although it was subsequently retrieved a few days later near…
The Places
The Scams of Dakar
by Sean •
“I will eat you alive.” The young Japanese tourist stared at me helplessly as the customs guard grinned and said something that I didn’t understand. I would have helped him had I understood at all what in the hell he was saying, but I didn’t. In Dakar, tourists are separated and fleeced in an ever…
The Places
Insults in Pakistan
by lukebrown •
A particularly contentious insult utilised occasionally by some Pathan people, when challenged or insulted, is to point to one’s groin and invite them to “take it”. It is only used rarely, usually when the circumstances are heated and one is willing to back up the challenge, sometimes with their own life. An argument once broke…
The Places
Azad Jammu and Kashmir Interrupted
by lukebrown •
“Life is slow here,” remarked the thirty-something man next to me, as a cock crowed outside the door of the pharmacy of a friend of his we were in, a few kilometres from the centre of Muzaffarabad. A cow lazily walked by along the dusty path running parallel to the flowing Neelum river nearby, emphasising…