Israel/Palestine, long term travel, Public History, Travel to Sweden
Sweden’s capital is prettier than Oslo. The natural setting, with winding canals and myriad islands connected by walking bridges, is accented by old stone bridges and a magnificent wall of buildings in earthy rainbow colors accented by stone brocade...
Aging on the Run, Former Yugoslavia, long term travel, Nationalism, Public History, Sustainable Economies
I began this essay in Montenegro, where people speak a local Serbian dialect, and finished it in Wales, where Welsh is visible on every signpost, yet English is undeniably dominant. Such is the language of empire. Living in countries with idioms foreign to me, I have...
Aging on the Run, Balkans, Public History, Sustainable Economies
“I accepted the story I heard on foreign media: that the [1997] Albanian civil war could be explained not by the collapse of a flawed financial system but by longstanding animosities between ethnic groups… its plan could be disrupted only by outside...
Aging on the Run, Balkans, PTSD and Historical Trauma, Public History, Radical Hospitality, Social Movements
Albania’s oldest city has 1,000 identical windows in its Ottoman-era old town, and a Byzantine city on top of one of its mountains. The Osum River runs through Berat, with buildings hugging the slopes. A green ridged range covers its north side. South of the...
Aging on the Run, Nationalism, Public History, Sustainable Economies
In Albania, time folds, though the marching chronology of the country’s last 130 years appears stark with fundamental change: The Ottoman Empire, Nationalist Monarchy, Italian Fascism, Enver Hoxha’s Stalinism, Enver Hoxha’s Maoism, Enver’s Hoxha’s Enverism— a...
Aging on the Run, Nationalism, Public History, Radical Hospitality, Sustainable Economies
Getting off the train in Madrid, we followed the crowds into the dark city. Our train companions formed a line for taxis, but we crossed the street, got on the right bus to the right apartment. Perhaps that does not sound like a big deal to you, but we are notorious...
