Banksy, Justice, and the Violence of Silence The piece begins with a striking image: a Banksy mural that appeared overnight on London’s High Court — a furious depiction of justice turned executioner, of law reduced to raw violence. Within hours, authorities erased it. But their attempt at “cleaning” only deepened the message. The ghost image…
Christ the king, Swiebodzin, Poland This week’s Camino a Ítaca reflects on giant Buddha’s and takes us to a frozen, muddy field in western Poland to see a Marvel-inspired Jesus. Read the original Spanish piece here or the English below. Tambien se puede ver el original en castellano abajo en PDF. I first caught a glimpse of…
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. One of the things I liked most about living in an ex-Soviet republic like Azerbaijan was the public art. It seemed that every square had…
The bullet holes you see in the sculptures at El Torno are real and recent. It has been more than 70 years since the guns of the civil war officially fell silent and more than 30 since Spain’s brutal dictator died peacefully in his sleep. Even after so many years, tensions here lie close to the…
One of the strongest memories I have of Iran is standing outside a regular neighourhood mosque covered in the black mourning flags that are so typical there. Decades of negative imagery on T.V made my wife and I unsure about entering the courtyard. Finally we ventured in and ended up parting ways. Suddenly I heard…
More than 20 centuries ago, Aristotle wrote that ethics and therefore happiness lie somewhere in the middle of extremes…where that somewhere exactly is has been debated since his Nicomachean Ethics came out, but few people would dispute that, to a certain extent, some truth lies in his premise. The Iberian peninsula and Spain in particular…
Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century A 1972 photo of a Georgian family picnicking near a medieval monastery, part of a series taken in this retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art. We walked into eastern Georgia across a wooden bridge reinforced with rusty iron beams that boomed as huge tree trunks slammed into the pillars.…
Last night’s Minaret exhibit was not only a chance to share some photos that I’ve taken on my travels but an opportunity to retrieve and relive some dusty memories that had been lying forgotten in my 1.0 memory chip mind. During the evening, a few astute visitors were quick to notice an early Soviet-era statue…
I usually get various reactions from editors when I send them submissions about traveling in Iran. They usually range from complete silence to cheeky replies regarding the sanity of those who travel in such places. So it was with great surprise that I got an email the other day from Trazzler asking me to write…
Nor Top 8’s… And not even a Top 10. No advice on how to remember where you put your hotel key, nor inane tips on how to ‘bargain like a local.’ Just a writer, not a ‘travel’ writer, telling of his experience. It can’t be read while doing 3 other things and even demands a…