by Richard | Jun 12, 2011 | Africa, Journalism, Travel, Uganda
There’s an anecdote that kicks its dusty way through people’s lives at all the right times. The idea that if you don’t know what to do, do anything. The moment you begin to move, the right choice becomes clear. It’s been that way this week, as...
by Richard | May 25, 2011 | Journalism, Reflections, Uganda
I finally finished transcribing the last days of my journal from Uganda somewhere around half past one this morning. One last push to get the last precious, straggling words off their handwritten pages. Loving each one, keystroke by keystroke – trying to...
by Richard | May 15, 2011 | Thinking, Travel
Travel has, for some time now, been a sacred practice with me. Not necessarily escapist backpacking, but the willful breaking of ties to the places, people and rules-of-the world in which I am enmeshed. It is, I suppose, pilgrimage of a kind. Traveling has meant...
by Richard | May 1, 2011 | Journalism, Photography
Last year I missed the One in Nine march. Rhodes University does it every year, as a protest against the truly medievil levels of rape and violence directed at South African women. The name derives from the estimate that up to one in every nine rapes in the country...
by Richard | Apr 30, 2011 | Thinking
That’s a fairly well-suited metaphor for the state of my mind right now. Right through the long weekends, public holidays and off-days, I have done little else except read and learn. Once, upon a far-more-ignorant time, I thought that the phrase ‘reading...
by Richard | Apr 11, 2011 | Africa, Photography, South Africa
South Africans I have traveled with – and people visiting South Africa from abroad that I have met – often remark on the sheer number of contrasts in the country. On the fact that it really feels like many countries in one. Some of the time, these comments...
by Richard | Mar 31, 2011 | Reflections, Thinking, Uncategorized
As many readers may be unaware, I am still a student this year. After finishing the postgrad diploma in journalism at Rhodes University last year, I remained to pursue an MA in Media Studies through a part coursework/part dissertation program. The dissertation is...
by Richard | Mar 15, 2011 | Creative Writing
Unplugging the little white earplugs, I’m assaulted by the airport. It beats down on me with announcement, badly covered music and self-important conversations. Airport announcements always given in that ‘this is important’ voice that never comes...
by Richard | Mar 5, 2011 | Africa, Journalism, Photography, Politics, Travel, Uganda
It’s December 10 and Tom, Saskia and I have come to the half-completed Karin Children’s Clinic to watch a local women’s group hold a weekly meeting to discuss administrative matters. They manage projects from beadmaking to raising livestock on a...
by Richard | Feb 22, 2011 | Africa, Journalism, Travel, Uganda
Everena Okott (67) finishes speaking in the partial indoor light. Geoffrey translates politely, “She says, as you can see, the small lights here (he points to the ceiling) these were bullets and they were firing… that’s what she says… There is no one to get up there...
by Richard | Feb 12, 2011 | Creative Writing, Europe, United Kingdom
It’s late and my eyes burn a little. My clock says its sometime after midnight. It feels like it’s always sometime past midnight, but there are journal articles to be read. Things to learn. It’s the third week into my Masters in Media Studies at...
