“Had cameramen captured another submarine volcanic eruption – surely that was it? Only slowly did I realise that the deep blue was sky and the monolith was a skyscraper. Somehow in those moments the brain filtered out the explanatory words of the newsreader. Only when a second plane swooped like a dragonfly and exploded in flames into the World Trade Center did reality reassert itself…” Liz Butterfield writes in the aftermath of the 11 September tragedy.
“My family and I moved to Fiji a year ago from a small, rural community in the far north-east of Scotland. When we first arrived, my employer put us up in a nice, mid-range hotel close to the sleazy part of Suva. Guests were advised to travel everywhere by taxi because of the number of muggings. It also rained almost continuously for the first two weeks. Welcome to Fiji!” Dr Peter Forster looks at life in the Pacific.
A satirical poke at the inconclusive result of the 2000 US Presidential election.
“I do not wish to offend anyone but I sometimes feel totally inhibited about what I may or may not write on this site because of the racism issue. I tend to crack jokes about women – because I am one; about men – because I’m married to one; about Scots – again, because I am one; but I am shit scared of doing anything else.” Phil asks: where does good-humoured teasing stop and racism begin?
A selection of some of Dubya’s finest quotations prior to the 2000 US presidential election.
“For many people, the image that comes to mind when they hear the word slavery is that of the old slave trade. It is something we think of as part of our history rather than our present. But the reality is that slavery continues today.” Why the struggle to rid the world of this evil practice continues into the 21st century – and what you can do to help.