Queen Elizabeth, the only monarch who has ruled over the colonial domains I’ve lived in during my lifetime, finally passed away last month. Her Majesty had a good run, the longest, and has now left an aging successor whose tenure on the throne is suspect, as is the stability of the Commonwealth of Nations, that […]
The Queen is Dead, Long Live the King! Eh? Read More »
Every time I sit down to write about Sri Lanka, I shake my head. The country never fails to surprise me. And sadden me. The rational side of my brain says, “But you need not concern yourself – you left 42 years ago. You’ve cleaved to another, more rational and prosperous, country – let it
A Country of Paradoxes Read More »
Every time there is a seismic shift in taste, technology or time-availability, pundits say the novel is dead. And yet this hefty tome that demands so much attention from its reader has ambled on over the centuries. No one really knows when it began, although everyone claims their favourite to be the first novel (Tom
How the Novel travelled through the internet with me in tow Read More »
It is now a given that you can’t submit work to a major publisher without going through a literary agent, for there are no more publishers’ slush piles. Publishers have also outsourced most aspects of production – editing, design, formatting, printing, distribution, proof reading, marketing and publicity – to “contractors.” What are publishers left with?
Have Publishers Outsourced Their Slush Piles to Literary Agents? Read More »
My heart mourns for Sri Lanka today when I see the pictures of lineups for gasoline and food, and the mass protests on Galle Face Green urging the government and the president to resign. We had a similar demonstration like that in Ottawa recently, but our “First-World” protestors opened barbecues and saunas for comfort, food
Lament of a Forgotten Son Read More »
This article was turned down by my regular publications when submitted in late February, for there was uncertainty about its reception. Then other geopolitical events of larger import got in the way and the article was “drowned in the feed.” But when bikers resuscitated this battered horse last weekend in Ottawa, I decided to publish
The West has launched economic warfare on Russia with its severest sanctions yet, in the hope that they would cripple the country faster and with less loss of life than with open hostilities. And yet, as I visited Cuba for the sixth time in a span of 17 years, I saw no change in this
Do Sanctions Work? Cuba Begs to Differ Read More »
The last two years of hibernation have taken their toll on everyone’s life. This forced change came at a time when lifestyle was going to change for me anyway, with another looming milestone: retirement. My concept of retirement was of “active retirement” – a lifestyle I had promoted to seniors ahead of me in the
I remember when I took my oath of citizenship thirty years ago. After searching for more than thirty years prior to that, I had finally arrived home, in a country I could be proud of, because I was being accepted – warts, accent, vocabulary, biases, and all – I was finally a Canadian. In the
I used to be a good Canadian – not anymore, it appears Read More »
As this year winds down, I am left wondering about some of the incongruent happenings in the world around me, some of which I have dealt with in full-length articles. Let me itemize them, in no particular order. Hopefully, if you see some meaning, or have faced similar questions in the past and can see
A year of incongruency – why? Read More »