Brazil’s president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva recently authorized the creation of a 6,500-square-mile reservation for indigenous people in the country’s northern state of Roraima. The president’s decision begins another chapter in a 30-year-long struggle that has resulted in the deaths of more than 20 Brazilian Indians, according to Amnesty International. Creating the reservation will […]
A case brought by Burmese villagers against U.S. oil company Unocal was settled out of court in late March. The company was accused of allowing human rights abuses – including murder, rape and forced labor – to occur during construction of the Yadana oil pipeline in rural Burma (Myanmar) during the 1990s. The settlement came […]
The snow and ice that usually top the peak of Mt. Kilimanjaro (Tanzania) have virtually disappeared in what geoscientists estimate is the first time in approximately 11,000 years. Environmental activists say the icecap’s loss is a direct result of rising temperatures in recent decades. According to Greenpeace, the damage to Mt. Kilimanjaro is a harbinger […]
COLOMBO – Today is the 3rd of March, 2005; the sound of traffic, the megaphone-amplified voices of lottery hawkers, and the hotel room’s air conditioning provide a familiar background to my last morning in Colombo. Across Galle Face Road lies the sea, but the white noise of the waves never seems to reach my room. […]
COLOMBO – I know, there’s been a long silence. Some people have even written to me, wondering if I was still alive; I hope my lack of response didn’t convince them of the worst. “Absence of evidence,” as the SETI researchers are fond of saying, “is not evidence of absence.” Between February 3rd and 18th, […]
“Everything is bullshit but the open hand…” – Bruce Cockburn, Strange Waters Haven’t written much since Dwayne took off, exactly a week ago. The first few days are spent in Colombo, trying to make something happen; and then, as things will, they do. I depart Colombo at 6 a.m. Saturday morning after a fitful night’s […]
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA — It’s 6 a.m. on January 24th. The streets are pitch black. Dwayne and I — in the care of a remarkably fluent and urbane driver named Dilan (“Like Bob… or Matt”) — hit the road early, hoping to avoid Colombo’s hellish traffic. We’re heading 75 miles east, to Sri Lanka’s 16th […]
SAMBOOR, SRI LANKA — The pace of work has been relentless. Don’t know if it’s because I’m inspired, or because I was starved for inspiration for so long, but I’ve been tapping off a power cell that seems to get charged only in fantastically edgy environments. Many times my partner here, photographer Dwayne Newton, has […]
TRINCOMALEE — Two weeks in Sri Lanka. Nearly all of what I’ve written, even in my journal, has been for publication. Haven’t had any time to reflect on the personal — which is actually a refreshing change from my normal schedule of 24/7 self-involvement. A disaster like this pulls you out of yourself; your narrow […]
