Here we are in 2015, approaching 90 years since women got the vote, being urged to celebrate all that we’ve achieved in honour of International Women’s Day. And there’s a lot to celebrate – we are not only more visible, we are also playing more of a leading role in society, politics, the economy and the arts. However, there’s no denying that the struggle isn’t over, we’ve a long way to go yet.
My story: Recalling the journeys of the Ugandan Asian Diaspora
If days are where we live our lives then stories are where we remember them. Whether fact or fiction, the telling of tales is one of the most compelling ways to chart journeys and worlds discovered by people Other than ourselves. As children, we relish fairy tales that introduce us to the concept of morality and allow us to invest hope and expectation in imaginary people and their adventures.
Foggy bridges, clouded minds: Can art make us care for Earth?
It’s fairly evident that we’re a selfish bunch — developing technologies that help us live as fast and hard as possible, spending money on products that will prolong pleasure if not life itself (though that’s also a heavily financed desperate pursuit), mining foreign lands for all they’re worth, all with relatively little regard for the long term consequences. But what of those consequences, and do we care enough to react?
From Bristol to Iceland: A mini adventure
It isn’t the icy cold chill that stuns you when you first witness Iceland, it’s the soft blue halcyon glow that suffuses every atom with a ghostly calm. Before you’ve even had a chance to realise it, the light is the perfect complement to the stillness that hangs over everything, suspending your sense of self and time.
Why I went back to vegetarianism
Buoyed on by Morrissey’s pronouncement that Meat is Murder, a love of animals, and a rampantly militant attitude towards anything conformist (i.e.: I was a moody teenager), in 1993 I swore never to eat another living creature again. For ten years I lived by that oath, embracing lentils, tofu and quinoa, riding the hippy wave of independent spirit that every generation mistakes as unique to itself. Ten years later, I did the terrible thing that my teenage self would have hated me for — I started to eat fish.
How photography captures more than just a moment
Good photography not only tells a story but prompts a series of questions about the subject — what happened to make that woman’s face so cragged, what happened to the child after the photographer turned away, how did that landscape become so ravaged, what’s going on inside the rooms of that building reflected on the shiny surface of that skyscraper?
Picturing the past: How Uganda changed one family’s fortune
Nearly all the families who belong to the Ugandan Asian Diaspora have either a collection of photographs or a series of tired-looking but carefully-preserved albums in which their past is visually documented. Photographs were one of the few things that were not confiscated by Idi Amin’s military as the Asian community reluctantly and with heavy hearts checked out through Entebbe Airport in October 1972.
Uganda Revisited: In search of lost memories
Immigration & moral imagination: The role of fiction in asserting the facts
What does it mean to be an immigrant? How does it feel to leave your family behind in a state of crisis while you flee to a foreign land? How do you reconcile your past with your new present when integrating with a different culture? With so much talk - and misunderstanding - about immigration in the public and political spheres, these are questions that sorely warrant closer investigation.
Inequality and people power: An unfinished story
6 reasons why writing is a skill everyone should cultivate
The question of what motivates and inspires writers has enduring appeal for anyone eager to pursue the creative life. It also reveals some fascinating insights from which anyone can benefit. We all have a story to tell, as individuals, organisations, communities, societies, businesses. And just like any story, if it’s interesting enough and told well, people will listen.
Who are we and does it even matter?
How many of us really think about the different components of our being — our identity as determined by our own actions and beliefs, and who we are as perceived by others? For most of us, it isn't until we face a struggle in life — for the right to justice, equality, political representation, even the basic struggle as experienced by all of us at one time or another to belong — that our identity starts to matter in dramatic ways.
To have or to be? That is the question
Surviving rape: Life as a refugee woman
“It was the toughest moment of my life. I was pregnant against my wishes as a result of rape, going to an unknown country, with no support. But I had to face reality.” Speaking from the coffee shack she runs in Nairobi, Jenet recalls the day she stood alone on the border of Ethiopia and Kenya, aged 17. It was just one critical moment on a traumatic journey that would see her subjected to multiple sexual assaults over the next four years.
The changing face of development
High up in the majestic rolling hills of Rwanda sit some 100 men and women discussing how they intend to tackle the challenges that have beset progress in this remote village where soil erosion, poor harvests, heavy rainfall, precarious roads and lack of electricity are the norm. From improving their crop yields, to a desire for social structure, the people of Siganiro are eager for change.
Books, glorious books
Geography is history: Going back to the start
Uganda, the peal of Africa and where the Ugandan Asian Diaspora story all began. But as I go back to the start, it isn't only the tales of oppression and brutality associated with Uganda of the 1970s that I think of, but the expectation of finding answers to some long-held questions about the country as it once was, and as it is now.
Us and them: The curse of celebrity activism
The core belief at the heart of humanitarianism is indisputably a noble one, faultless even; who could argue with the principle that we ought collectively to take responsibility for improving human welfare? And yet the realisation of that ideal is often muddied by the agendas of the neediest, self-proclaimed worthiest of humanitarian ambassadors — celebrities.
In praise of paper
For anyone who’s ever harboured a perverse, semi-intellectual fetish for stationery, there is no substitute for the crisp, clean greeting that is the opening page of a new notebook. It’s easy to romanticise the humble pen and paper in an age when digital communication is taking over the world. There’s no arguing with how computers have propelled productivity - the internet is flooded with an infinite tirade of verbiage. But is this necessarily a good thing?
The pleasure of a blue sky moment
The phrase “blue sky thinking” litters conversations these days, the supposition being that it will prompt radical new ideas to flutter through. But rather than sparking the imagination, the call for forced creativity can invoke dread. And rightly so; as Orwell pointed out, this kind of inane management speak is a deliberate distortion of reality.