by Ian Cochrane | May 3, 2018 | Africa, Europe, Oceania, Utopia
Grandma was a short, stooped lady fond of telling stories in her Scottish brogue. In that blue, white and green MacDonald tartan pinny over a floral dress, she cooked up batches of potato scones, fried fruitcake and black pudding. No one in her family had seen a...
by Ian Cochrane | Mar 12, 2018 | Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe, Oceania, Utopia
Bodies of children, guns more sacred Lay in heaps on crimson pavement The future dead, the ghosts of hope A shattered nation with prayers will cope . Pagoda beauty, suddenly soured Hateful icons, a new leader’s power Crowded camps, no fault their own Despair and...
by Ian Cochrane | Mar 3, 2018 | Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe, Oceania, Utopia
Blogging these days is not like it once was… a fickle, little-read beast at best. And it’s hard to believe that just five years back I chose to take a dip in the blogosphere, a late starter, a wandering writer through the once-was maze of WordPress and...
by Ian Cochrane | Feb 22, 2018 | Africa
I am in Namibia, 350km northwest of the once colonial centre of German West Africa, Windhoek; on the edge of the 2000km Namib Desert – the oldest in the world I’m told. From the setting sun my gaze drifts north and way down to the road at the toe of this great...
by Ian Cochrane | Dec 6, 2016 | Africa
Mosque minarets pierce soggy Lagos skies and I ask my driver to stop, the road potholed with waterlogged lakes and lined both sides with traders’ stalls. Just here are piles of tomatoes on tottering stacks of pavers. Ribs sizzle next door, sweet basil wafting...
by Ian Cochrane | May 30, 2014 | Africa
`…didn’t you ever want to know what was on the other side of the mountain?’ – James Hilton, Lost Horizon. Funny to find an Antipodean neighbour way out here: a beanie-clad, mumbling, red-head New Zealander in the middle of Africa; him...
