The story goes like this: A class of seventh graders travels from Bogotá to the Colombian Amazon and goes for a hike. Before leaving, their guide advises them to respect the indigenous elders and the spirits of the forest. Everybody nods when listening about the gruesome creatures, just one boy laughs. It’s the same boy […]
All posts filed under ‘Idle Musings’
Mirrors and Necklaces
Remember the stories of American natives, giving away their treasures to the conquerers that had arrived to colonize them? Unassuming of what was coming, many Indians were happy to trade their gold, their cities, and ultimately their sovereignty for mirrors and necklaces. And every school kid is astonished to hear about people exchanging their highest […]
Normality?
There is something about being a normal person that’s comforting. I know that, because apart from living frugally in the Caribbean as a self-employed dilettante, I’m a quite normal person, enjoying quite normal things. Okay, I’m no television and football fan, like most males in my age, and I hate cars. But I enjoy Hollywood […]
Pirate Girl
She was a normal girl like all the others, the only difference was that this girl was obsessed with pirates. She had pirate swords, a pirate bed, and everything for her was pirates. Her parents were worried because she didn’t play with the girls but with boys. She played pirate war games. One night, when […]
Localism and Location Independence
While traveling through Europe during the last weeks, getting invited to warm beer in England and cold sausages in Austria, a question came to my mind: If we live location-independently and travel around a lot, is it still possible to be part of local communties? Hint: Expat meetings are not part of local communties. Why […]