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A Night at the Theater
Last year, as you might recall, I went to a strip club in Mumbai. Ok, there was no stripping per se, and the girls showed less skin than a bride at an Amish wedding, but it …
Travel Essays
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Chernobyl: 2012
Chernobyl has been getting a lot of attention lately after HBO’s excellent miniseries on the 1986 disaster that occurred here. (If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend that you take a look.) During the …
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Canceling Cambellotti
One of the most beautiful buildings in Bari is undoubtedly the Palazzo dell’Acquedotto (Palace of the Aqueduct). It’s rather unassuming façade masks a nearly unaltered interior entirely decorated in what the Italians call stile Liberty, …
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Why Italian Food Sucks
Back in 1999, I took my first trip to Italy. I was dazzled by the ancient ruins, the magnificent cathedrals, and, of course, the food. It seemed no matter where I sat down, a good …
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Tradition and Modernity in Mauritania: The Sands under the Sea
Part four of a four-part series. For part three click here Change comes by way of water. Rivers, lakes, and seas are the great highways of the world. Almost every country on earth is in …
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Tradition and Modernity in Mauritania: The Sands of the Oasis
Part two of a four-part series. For part one click here For centuries, the oasis has sustained existence in the desert. These precious pools of water, which seem to bubble up from nowhere, are nothing …
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Tradition and Modernity in Mauritania: The Sands of Change
Part one of a four part series exploring Mauritania’s evolving culture in the face of an encroaching modern world.
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Betel, Tobacco, and Pickled Tea, or: How I learned to Speak Burmese without Saying Very Much (Part III of III)
I awoke to a sharp jolt as the ferry banged against the dock. It was still dark, but most of the passengers were already up. Thet and Khin Myat were busy packing their belongings. I …
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Betel, Tobacco, and Pickled Tea, or: How I learned to Speak Burmese without Saying Very Much (Part II of III)
The first thing I noticed, when my eyes had adjusted to the dim light, was that there was just about as much activity on board the boat as ashore. A varied collection of goods were …
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Building the Symbols of a Nation
While in Dakar, a former Senegalese government administrator told me that in post-colonial Africa the primary purposes of government was to create the symbols of a nation. Senegal, like so many other areas of Africa, …