Arts
The Year Turns, Part 3
Imbolc This celebration of light and hope marked the early signs of spring and is one of the key occasions in the Celtic calendar, marking the transition from winter to spring. Widely observed in Ireland, [more…]
Culture
Arts
Happy 5th Birthday Going Postal
Still here! Many thanks to all those Postaliers who have contributed to the site in one way or another over the last five years. Have a drink on me. Swiss Bob
Arts
The Swaling, Part Forty
April 1984 suffered its share of chill winds, further proof that the final quarter of the 20th century drew towards an ice age. But the clocks never struck thirteen and the masses making their way [more…]
Arts
Confessions of a campsite courier, Part 2
Je vous parle d’un temps Que les moins de vingt ans Ne peuvent pas connaître ….. C’est là qu’on s’est connu Moi qui criait famine Et toi qui posais nue….. Charles Aznavour – La Bohème [more…]
Arts
The Swaling, Part Thirty Nine
We’re in the underground comms room of a deserted nighttime British High Commission in Singapore. Outside, a swaling wind, a tropical storm mixed with the burnings of Indonesian crops, is battering the city state’s good [more…]
Arts
The Swaling, Part Thirty Eight
“Whose side are you on?” I snarled to Lotus Flower in a private message. “Mine,” she replied promptly. “You retire in disgrace in a few weeks, I have to think about the rest of my [more…]
Arts
Reexamining Corruption
It’s hard to make a pro-corruption argument. This might seem like a banal point to make, but it goes a long way to explaining its role as a rhetorical tool to delegitimise incumbent elites. Any [more…]
Arts
The Swaling, Part Thirty Seven
In real life, we’re sat in a row in the comms room, logged on to our computers. On the screens our avatars are in the virtual 3D interactive world of EYE, an intelligence archive retrieval [more…]
Arts
The Swaling, Part Thirty Six
We’re in an underground comms room in Singapore, suffering a bit of low key blackmail as an old contact, Tammy, on the New York side of a cell-phone loudspeaker, wants to know something, before she’ll [more…]