SOCIAL
MOVEMENTS
Beauties and Beasts: A Month in the United States, 2025.
After two years of global travel, we now know how beautiful the world is. As bicycle travelers, we knew the land we call the United States is as stunning as the rest. We forgot just how lovely the US Northland is in the fall. I do not remember a year when red...
To the Accra Palace: An unexpected trip to London, England.
I have a different idea of a universal. It is of a universal rich with all that is particular. Aime Cesaire, Discourse on Colonialism My interest in pan-Africanism began 40 years ago when I was working at the Central American Resource Center in Minneapolis....
Surprises in Belgrade, Serbia
Our plane from Rome to Belgrade, Serbia,, was three hours late. The Serbian government had shut down its airport to rehearse for its upcoming military parade. Despite the ominous delay, I enjoyed the flight. It was a cloudless day. We saw the contours of both Italian...
Bosnia and Herzegovina: “The Power Lies with the People.”
Multicultural Sarajevo A melodic chant drowned the raucous sounds of Old Town in Sarajevo. We sat in black wooden chairs facing the chancel in the Serbian Orthodox Museum. A couple crossed themselves in front of holy images. Two women—young, English-speaking,...
Sister Strangers: Japan
Our place in Ibaraki, Japan, was dark, cluttered, cheap—and three blocks away from the Sōjiji Temple. There are 80,000 Buddhist Temples in Japan. Sojiji must be the prettiest, kindest, most sanguine, and welcoming. We made it ours, coming every morning to...
The Sound of Silence: Jeju Island, South Korea
White waves, green water, and black volcanic rock, stirred by high wind. The view was wild, but inside the Jeju coffee shop, all was calm. A Korean ballad played softly. I was alone. My partner in this Aging on the Run venture was grocery shopping, leaving me...
Chaos, Order, and the Desire to be Free: Egypt.
"For the ancient Egyptians, the universe was composed of dualities: fertile and barren, life and death, order and chaos." Andrew Humphreys, Cairo and the Nile, Eyewitness Travel. 2009. "A new museum has been built to showcase Egypt's ancient artifacts, yet no...
Letting Wounds Speak. Turkey.
On the waterfront in Kadiköy, on the Asian side of Istanbul, in the November afternoon sun, a musician with a man-bun and beard plays on an electrified acoustic guitar. Old men and young women sit with their phones on video, capturing Turkish tunes...
People’s Living History: Northern Ireland
The Political Geography of Northern Ireland Then and Now. To begin to understand Northern Ireland, I needed to stare at some maps. Ireland before 1920 was divided into four provinces. Ulster, the most northern province, was itself divided into nine counties....
Third International Conference on Environmental Peace Building, The Hague, The Netherlands, June, 2024
I attended the Third International Conference on Environmental Peace Building, in The Hague, The Netherlands, in June 2024. I will keep adding to this post until I finish making a narrative from my notes. My commentary in italics Session 7:...