I haven’t worked in Africa for nearly 20 years, but I miss the place and the people every day. Most of my work was in Ghana and The Gambia, and I maintain a log of thousands of wonderful memoriets. This is one written in 2005. I got back from Ghana…

Perusing the mid-term elections results in Alabama is always disconcerting, but this year any semblance to a working democracy was strictly coincidental. Of course all five congressional seats went Republican, but not one had less than 67% of the vote. In District 1, where I used to live, Jerry Carl…

The train rumbled through the Alabama pine woods, the boxcar my father was in rocking slowly from side to side gently, rolling him to sleep on a pile of loose hay in the corner. Three other men shared the car, one looking moodily out of the open door as the…

There’s a chill in the air, and that means millions of Canadians are leafing through CAA “Sunny Destinations” brochures and checking out Travelocity for deals in Cuba. But before you go, I want to share this cautionary tale. How do you spot a Canadian on a crowded Caribbean beach? The…

Last night my wife and I saw the brilliant documentary Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song. A marvelous reminder of Cohen’s extraodinary talent and life, it also reminded me my of his concert in Vancouver 12 years ago. Unlike any concert I had seen before or have seen since…

The other day I received one of those ubiquitous forwarded emails that some acquaintance thinks I will find a) funny, or b) illuminating. Rarely are they either. But this one was at least interesting. The writer (a pure-wool American) started by decrying a recent congressional allocation of $70 billion. We…

When I lived in the States back in the 60’s, those of us in the anti-Vietnam War movement played capture the flag with pro-war hawks. They won, making the American flag synonymous around the world with blind patriotism, willful ignorance, and warmongering. …

Farley the Wonder Dog was my best friend and a wonderful companion. From British Columbia to the Alabama Gulf Coast to the Niagara Escarpment, we hung around together for over 14 years. …

A recent article by Henry Giroux, “The War against Teachers as Public Intellectuals in Dark Times” lays out the case for a concerted, planned, coordinated attack on educators by right-wing corporate forces. This is no conspiracy theory — just a plain conspiracy (or, as Chomsky puts it, “a confluence of…