One of the books that had the most impact on me when I was younger was Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder. One scene in particular has always stuck with me. There’s a point in the story where two characters are talking about the way the typical person gets used to existence and stops questioning the [...]
That’s it. I’m calling for a moratorium on analogies. What’s my authority? Do I need authority? I’m making my own authority. The fact of the matter is that the use of analogies has gotten so completely out of control someone has to step into the breach and if that someone has to be me, so [...]
I was recently informed of a JET Programme event coming up in May that calls for me to prepare a kind of ‘mini-exhibition’ about my home town and home country. It’s the last Board of Education-related event that I will be asked to participate in before my contract ends in August. Although there is a sentimental quality to it, [...]
Today on the way to work I saw a girl with her headphones on, messaging away on a mobile phone. This in itself is not unusual. Indeed, the sight is pretty common in most urban areas anywhere in the world. But what struck me while I was watching her was what this signified. Or at [...]
I suppose you call me a post-ideological child. I don’t subscribe to traditional ideas of left and right. I’m not sure that capitalism is the worst think that mankind has ever thought up or if that particular accolade should go to communism instead. So when it comes to the issue of school vouchers I find [...]