Goree Island. "The Door of No Return."

A while back I was in Dakar, Senegal, and went on a group trip to Goree Island, the westernmost point of the African continent. It is infamous for the "Door of No Return," through which slaves passed to board ships for the Americas. Now the island is a tourist spot, and tourists are assaulted by souvenir hawkers both before boarding the ferry and after arriving. The island has several nice, beach-side restaurants and some elegant boutique hotels. I found this to be very odd, considering it is hallowed ground, believing that the island should be preserved as a memorial, not turned into a means of profit. Those tour guides who condemn the slave trade are now profiting from it.

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Return to Zimbabwe

It's been a long time since I made an entry. A lot has happened. My wife and I returned to Zimbabwe, where we are going to stay for a while before going to the U.S. I like Zimbabwe. In spite of what is reported about the country, the inflation, failing infrastructure, and poverty, the country is a wonderful place and the news media doesn't get it right about Zimbabwe. It's easy to report the negative but not the positive, which are the beauty of the country, the climate (neither heat nor AC is necessary, because of the elevation and proximity to the equator), the people (very friendly (English is the national language), and lack of violent crime, the use of the U.S. dollar, the availability of fresh fruits and vegetables, the general peacefulness. Across the street from where we are staying there is a very posh restaurant, Victoria Twenty-Two , which is maybe better than the St. Regis in Amman. Glad we're not in Amman, considering what is going on in Gaza. Down t...

New Contrast's 200th Edition. Story: "Don't Cause Trouble."

New Contrast's 200 th edition , which has a story of mine, "Don't Cause Trouble," about a retired Navy/airline pilot who goes on safari in Zimbabwe and finds a new, more meaningful life there is now out. Digital edition only 50 rand. As Alfred E. Newmans says in Mad Magazine --"Cheap!" About $2.75. New Contrast is South Africa's oldest literary magazine and has published Nobel laureates, which is pretty good company to be in, I suppose. Also, I recommend that those who are fed up with the political orthodoxy of modern publishing subscribe to The Heresy Press , which is a reaction to the madness in publishing in the U.S. today, things like only Native Americans can write about topics that are Native American; no people of a race different from the writer's; nothing that might offend a group, racial or religious. (I think there are readers, and viewers, who can make up their own minds about what they like. "Breaking Bad," A Clockwo...

Singer Among the Ruins

Jerash , about an hour's ride northwest of Jordan's capital, Amman, is famous for its Greco-Roman ruins that were once stadiums where gladiators battled and chariot races were held; baths, and amphitheaters. Colonnades border roads paved with stones connect the various sites. One has to wonder when seeing these ruins, the columns still standing, the ornate scrollwork in evidence: How did the Romans build these places? It's a bit like walking onto the set of Ben Hu r, Spartacus , or, of course, Gladiator . At one of those amphitheaters, several boys were sitting in the shade of a column up toward the top of the theater, the row for plebeians. It was a warm spring day, and they seemed, at first, to be a bit bored. They clearly weren't tourists but locals. Why weren't they in school? No idea. Then I would learn why they were where they were. They were lying in wait for tourists to come along. When my wife and I did, one of the boys—he was maybe twelve—went down to the...

The Expatriate

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