There was a man in his early forties who liked to run . Running was very important for him and he loved it. He often joked with his friends that if one day he would not be able to run anymore he would then probably die. He used to run alone. Partly because he travelled a lot of for work , partly because he had just relocated in a new country and did make the […]
I want my arrival to be a celebration of the past 25 years not, as someone asked recently, will it give you closure?
My name is Abioseh. I was born in Gboko, Nigeria, in 2001. My father was a pastor in a local church. My mother was working in a laundry shop part time as she had also to take care of me and my four brothers and sisters. If I look back at my childhood I remember that we lived always in the same house next to the church where my father worked. My memories are mainly […]
It is dark outside the windows of the yellow cab from Ninoy Aquino airport to the Makati district in Manila. I usually have to stay one night here before catching the flight to Dumaguete early in the morning. This time I did not find a room in the hotel where I usually to stay. So I browsed the web to look for a different one and found this London Inn. The traffic is not too […]
Bip. Bip Bip. The automatic door of the train starts to close. In my mind still the last words I told her: ‘I am a crazy man’. She had looked at me and with a slight smile and had replied: ‘Could be worse’. Now the door is closed and whatever I want to reply will stay this side of the glass window. I look at her. Our daughter is holding her hand and looking at […]
‘We are both so old’, I think looking at our hands. The thin skin that wraps the bones as a glove. The wrinkles on our fingers. The blue veins. Yet the same feeling of holding her hands as long ago. We are sitting on this small beach made by millions of tiny corals pieces. Sitting at the edge of the water, sipping beer from two bottles. Soft waves reaching the shore in the quiet night. […]
It is hot. The sound of the crickets is loud from the garden immersed in the tropical night. I tried to keep my eyes closed and find the sleep within my thoughts but it does not work. I put my hands under my head and look at the ceiling through the thin mosquito net which hags over the bed. I follow the lines drawn by the shadow of the window frame. I close my eyes […]
Frase tratta dalla recensione del nuovo libro di F. Rampini, Slow Economy: ‘E questo bel saggio del nostro inviato analizza proprio il “passaggio di consegne” da Ovest a Est. Quando descrive il suo viaggio da Pechino a New York, scrive che è stato «come fare un salto nel passato». Il vecchiume dell’aeroporto e degli aerei newyorkesi, il decadimento della rete stradale-autostradale, il metrò scassato e maleodorante sono i segnali che in fatto di infrastrutture la […]
This was written by philosopher Bertrand Russell at the age of 84: ‘Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair. I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy—ecstasy […]
I am standing at the departure area in Noi Bai airport in Ha Noi. People come and go carrying luggages and looking for the monitors which display the check in counters. Young Vietnamese men and women wear cotton jackets with a company name printed on them. It is the company which is sending them to work overseas. They sit in groups on their luggages. They have probably arrived too early and the check in has […]