In July 2001, the Tamil Tigers celebrated the 18th anniversary of Sri Lanka’s civil war by bombing the country’s only international airport at Kataunayaka. In September 2001 Al-Qaeda operatives brought violence to American shores with devastating attacks in New York and Washington. In Iraq in 2009, a suicide bomber killed Shia pilgrims on a bridge… Read More Mindset of Suicide Bombers
Terrorism is text, whether it is the printed pamphlets of Sendero Luminoso or the PLO in the 1970s, messages delivered by hooded IRA spokesmen at hastily arranged news conferences in Belfast, or Al-Qaeda leaders issuing proclamations, videos of Osama Bin Laden discussing attacks or pro-violence websites extolling supporters to participate in violence. People do not… Read More Propaganda of the Deed: Terrorism as Communication
Loving foreign cities is a bit like having an illicit love affair with someone you know is bad for you, but damn, he smells of hotel rooms and leather motorcycle jackets on hot summer evenings when time is nothing but a concept. You just cannot help yourself: salvation might be a wonderful thing but the… Read More The Allure of Cities
Perfumes with an amber base scent are the sultry bombshellls of the perfume world. They appear sophisticated and warm, but can get downright naughty on a summer’s night when the sun is lingering on the horizon. Amber base scents came from ambergris, which is produced from sperm whales and must mature over a long period… Read More Amber Perfumes
Film Noir evokes rain drenched streets, femme fatales with a gun in their purse, and most of all, the cynical, perversely honourable men who populate these black and white films. George Raft, handsome, sexy and just this side of civilised leaning against a lamppost in 1930s Shanghai; Humphrey Bogart cradling the Maltese Falcon in his… Read More Men of Film Noir
In My Dark Places, James Ellroy’s brutally honest memoir of his journey into his mother’s unsolved murder, he writes “he learned some things about murder early on. He learned that men killed with less provocation than women. Men killed because they were drunk, stoned or pissed. Men killed for money. Men killed because other men… Read More The Black Dahlia and The Writer’s Imagination
He did what he did every evening. It was a complete violation of protocol but he never varied from this pattern. It was his moment of silent rebellion, something he would never explain even if someone had asked him about it. No one ever asked him to explain. At 8.30 he walked from his room… Read More Chronos 8
If I could turn your walls into stained glass, I would show you how beautiful you are, Even when you cannot see it, I can. My friend, who is afraid to speak, to smile How can it be that I can see your beauty from a thousand miles away Scented with lilacs, brushed with pollen… Read More A Poem for the One Who Thinks of Suicide
