Category Archives: Uncategorized

Kharkiv August 5th We heard the incoming sound of rockets last night—two waves of them—and the next morning saw the result, a strike that hit a café. The blast zone is about 75m wide and has damaged, but not collapsed, … Continue reading →

Kyiv July 29th You have to love the drone, even more than your girlfriend, more than yourself. It will save lives—your own, the people in your unit, and much further than that. They are changing the course of the war. … Continue reading →

Kyiv July 22nd Volodymyr Zeleneksy’s unconventional path from comic actor to the presidency in Ukraine is well known, but much of the rest of his government is also fresh and new. I am at my first press conference in Kyiv … Continue reading →

Kyiv July 21st The first step when adjusting to a foreign country or posting is to stop thinking of yourself of being “over there”, you just are there. Kyiv’s Soviet history, Cyrillic alphabet and war time vibe don’t make that … Continue reading →

Kyiv, July 19th 2022 When Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev contributed an essay to the prominent American journal Foreign Affairs in 1959 calling for “peaceful coexistence” between the super powers in order to reduce Cold War tensions, there was someone quick … Continue reading →

Douglas Mason

July 15th Kyiv The wail of air raid sirens is associated with grainy, black and white movies from WWII, something from my parent’s generation. I am on a rooftop in Kyiv when this haunting, unmistakeable, sound begins rolling across the … Continue reading →

Kyiv July 15th I saw President  Volodymyr Zelensky on the street in Kyiv today, ambling along, small in stature, unshaven, wearing his trademark military fatigues and olive green t-shirt, surrounded by a group of men in uniform. Except it was … Continue reading →

Przemyśl—Sheh-mo-schull; the un-phonetic pronunciation of this Polish border town could easily be a metaphor for the Slavic experience that at this moment could not feel more alien. The Poland-Ukraine border is where the east of eastern Europe really begins. Przemyśl‘s … Continue reading →

The airline flight you are  on tells you something about the destination you are heading to and this one, from Warsaw to Rzeszów, in the south-east of Poland near to the Ukraine border, says something. More than just the Poles … Continue reading →

Johannesburg July 11th 2022 Nine point seven kilograms, that is the amount of luggage checked in at Johannesburg airport at the start of a journey that will probably lead in directions not anticipated. It is the unchecked, even unacknowledged, baggage … Continue reading →

Goma, Nord Kivu Province Democratic Republic of Congo, October 30th 2011   The movie Ezra, a full length drama about a child soldier in a fictional African country who is abducted by rebels, comes back to his own village and kills … Continue reading →

Goma, Nord Kivu Province Democratic Republic of Congo, October 27th 2011   Art will happen anywhere it is imagined and the venue for the Salaam Kivu International Film Festival (SKIFF) in Goma, eastern Congo, is packed out this afternoon—most of the … Continue reading →

Goma, Nord Kivu Province Democratic Republic of Congo October 26th 2011   You are not intelligent! Do you think you can come here and ask me questions? I do not know you! Can you do that in your country? No. If … Continue reading →

DRC on the downswing Goma, Nord Kivu January 18th 2011 th No matter how poor and conflict ridden an African country may be the single issue that makes them more bearable is knowing whether they are on the trajectory to … Continue reading →