“So, what’s the story?” she asked me, with a tone between bemusement and condescension. I was floating somewhere off the coast of Dakar when a fellow American in my study abroad program began her questioning. She was, of course, waiting to hear my prepared meaningful justification for the large tattoo on my hip. At the […]
The Intermodal Jungle
The Port of Calais is situated in northern France on the Strait of Dover, the narrowest point on the English Channel, and consequently, the gathering ground for refugees hoping to reach the United Kingdom. The “Jungle” is a sprawling refugee encampment that houses migrants of various origins seeking asylum across the strait. City dwellers and […]
The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions
Ivan Illich, an Austrian philosopher and outspoken critic of contemporary western culture, in his speech to the 1968 Conference on Inter-American Student Projects, said, “next to guns and money, the third-largest North American export is the American idealist.” The resource, replenished each year with a new graduating class of wide-eyed twenty-somethings eager to make their […]