Beijing to Moscow by train I on June 25, 2014This was to be the trip of a lifetime, the one I had been dreaming of since the mid-1970s. Standing on the platform of the Yaroslavsky station in Moscow to receive or send someone off, I would chance to see the Moscow-Beijing train ready to depart on, or at the end of, its long journey. […]
Migrants and sons of the soil on February 20, 2014The people of Switzerland have, by the narrowest of margins (50.3 percent), voted in a referendum to limit immigration into their country. Although this issue was simmering for a long time, it recently was highlighted by the large number of Europeans from countries such as Portugal emigrating to Switzerland for jobs and higher living standards. […]
Marshal of all he surveys on February 5, 2014General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has been promoted to the rank of field marshal by Adly Mansour, whom he himself not so long ago had appointed interim president of Egypt after overthrowing and imprisoning Mohammad Morsi, the elected president of Egypt. Meanwhile, the hapless Morsi, who had earlier promoted Sisi to the rank of general and […]
Motherland changeth, but changeth not on January 29, 2014Last September, I fulfilled an old dream of mineof travelling from Beijing to Moscow by train and then overland through eastern Europe to Turkey, Iran and a bit more. Before describing this journey,which took me to nearly twodozen countries over 10 weeks, I will begin where my trip ended: in the motherland.Not only had the […]
Reality, realpolitik and religion on January 17, 2014Consider two separate events from the last few weeks in two countries that could not be more different, situated on two continents, separated not only by geography but also by race, religion, history, ethnicity and culture. In the African state of South Sudan, there is a virtual civil war, pitting Christian against Christian. The bloodshed […]
Soccer, pickpockets and a peoples president on October 8, 2013As I mentioned in an earlier column, our only trouble in La Paz (Bolivia) was on account of a bad cook, not with conmen or pickpockets, the warnings in my travel book notwithstanding. We were, however, to come very close to having our valuables stolen in both Buenos Aires and Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. […]
End of the world, land of fire on October 1, 2013It is hard to say which was the high point of my trip. But probably the most exciting part was the trip to Ushuia, the world’s southernmost town, near the tip of the South American continent, ‘the end of the world’ (fin del mundo), as they call it around here. Just the thought that one […]
Across the Andes, to Buenos Aires on September 24, 2013About 200 kilometres south of the flight path of my plane, on the Argentinian side of the border with Chile, had occurred one of the most tragic air disasters and an amazing tale of human survival. A chartered Uruguayan Air Force plane carrying 45 people, including a rugby team, had hit the mountains and crashed […]
Muslims, Islam, West and the rest V on September 10, 2013Male Circumcision: Islamophobes are now ranting against male circumcision, attacking Islam by association, although it was practised by Jews long before Muslims. The circumcision rate among Israeli Jews is close to 100 percent and it is a far more ritualistic requirement for them than it is among Muslims. Circumcision has no mention in the Quran. […]
Muslims, Islam, West and the rest IV on September 3, 2013Let us now look at some specific issues that agitate non-Muslims regarding Islam and Muslims: Violence in the Quran: It is an almost universal belief among non-Muslims that the Quran promotes violence, and that it is the source of the current spate of terrorist attacks perpetrated by Muslims. I recommend readers to make a google […]