Building Sustainable, Local, Equitable, Economies
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 coasts and the Croatian islands. Over Bosnia and Herzegovina, we were low enough to see tiny ancient bridges over rivers! The plains of Serbia looked as flat as central Iowa, but without the grids and monotone. In fact, from the air, Serbian farms looked more like an Iowan crazy quilt of green, yellow, brown, and purple...
Local Global Switzerland.
When we were in Sarajevo, a politician said he wanted Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH ) to be like Switzerland. I thought that was ambitious. In our global Capitalist system, Switzerland is where world leaders solve a "problem" like Bosnia. But he was not referring to international politics. He wanted BiH to adopt the Swiss Canton (state) system, so that Serbs, Croats, and Bosniaks could live autonomously, but linked as a confederacy. Switzerland, like BiH, is composed of diverse ethnic groups. German, French, Italian, and Romansh-speaking people live in four different sections of the country,...
Latvia: Enchantment and the Weight of History
Whenever the pine recalls the olden days, a few tears still push their way through the pine’s bark in the shape of the drops of resin Latvian folktale ....The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living". Karl Marx, Latvia: familiar and strange We understand new places by comparing them to where we've been. Latvia reminded me of the US upper Midwest: a feeling, as I passed through forests and fields on the bus and visited small towns on the banks of waterways. I looked at museum photos of log-filled streams next to sawmills, and saw...
Empty and Fill: Seven Days in Chengdu, China
David turned 67 while standing in the wrong immigration and customs line in Chengdu. What we knew about Chengdu, China, would not fill a teacup. We came here because it was unknown to us, and we wanted a place in southwestern China that would be a good stopover on our way back west. This would be the last stop in Asia, after Sri Lanka, South Korea, and Japan. Coming to China from Japan, and returning through Istanbul, Turkey, I was reminded how much our comparative minds influence how we view places. Turkey looked dirty compared to China. China seemed more anarchic compared to rule-following...
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 here so I could write.I wanted to capture the contradictions I saw in a land where English was less helpful than anywhere else I had been. I had mastered thank you, hello, sorry, and I love you. along with useless phrases from Korean dramas: Really? It's a deal! You can do it!. Coming from months in Turkey, Greece, Egypt, and...
Sri Lanka: Hard and Hopeful Land. February, 2025.
I come from Minnesota. USA, a region of the world where February is so cold, artists create shanties on frozen lakes and people flock to see their creations. They build ice castles and call it a carnival. People drive trucks onto ponds, dress in five layers, drill holes in the ice, put down a line and wait. Sri Lanka’s rainforest, screaming monkeys, wild peacocks, elephants, tigers, and aqua sea were fantastic to me. I gawked at goats on city streets, stole photos of narrow lanes filled with tiny shops, goods piled to the ceiling. I was in awe of a woman my age carrying bales of twine...
Order, Chaos and the Desire to be Free. Egypt, January 2025
For the ancient Egyptians, the universe was composed of dualities fertile and barren, life and death, order and chaos. (1) A new museum has been built to showcase Egypt's ancient artifacts yet no structure exists to honor our desire to be free (2) People on Cairo streets greeted us: Welcome to Egypt! Outside of pyramids, museums, and Nile Cruises—there were few tourists and very few from the US in January 2025. People would guess where we were from: Russia? The UK?” We came to Egypt because a scholar I respect had an apartment in Cairo she was renting out. I was eager for the...
Icelandic Winds
Iceland is a land of ghosts and ghouls, sea monsters, and an earth that howls. It is an island of volcanoes and fjords, endless flat petrified lava fields, green valleys, black, white, and grey mountains, outdoor swimming pools, and salted fish. It is also a land of housing shortages and inflation that make life difficult for ordinary Icelanders and immigrants recruited to work in the burgeoning tourist industry. A dear friend whose time in Iceland intersected with ours picked us up at the airport. We viewed the burning volcano from a safe distance and then visited the Blue Lagoon, sitting...
People’s Living History of Northern Ireland
To understand the Troubles of Northern Ireland one must remove the veils of religion, ethnicity, and even nationalism, and begin with economy, which means learning about the unique properties of the flax plant and the geography of the North Channel. The Political Geography of Northern Ireland Then and Now. To begin to understand Northern Ireland, I needed to stare at some maps. I found one of Ireland before 1920, divided into four provinces. Ulster, the most northern province, was itself divided into nine counties. I then looked at a current, partitioned map. Northern Ireland is the old...
A Good Tourist in Oslo?
Every adventure should include a messenger who provides the lesson of your visit. Oslo is on a hill. From the central train station, it climbs steadily. Four miles up is Frogner Park— a grand stretch of green. Advancing to the pinnacle, we passed a mass of bronze, iron, and granite, naked, ordinary people across the age span, with distinctive Nordic features. Gustav Vigeland (1 Vigeland Park struck me as unusual in three ways: 1. A single artist was given a claim to fill the entire park with their muse. 2. The statues are modern. 3. The people depicted are not kings or princesses. The...