by Ian Cochrane | Aug 6, 2018 | Asia, Utopia
A potent story with powerful performances from child actors. This is a desperate portrayal of survival, and a test for humanity, peering through a shattered looking glass into a world of abject existence – all set in the busy bleakness of Beirut slums. There is...
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 | May 14, 2015 | Asia
The Tokyo bar is a circle, Teppanyaki hotel chefs in tall hats and shirtsleeves in the centre; their shiny cleavers deftly dealing with slabs of beef, cabbage, prawns and abalone.The air smells of garlic and warm vegetable oil. I sip a Sapporo, the man across the way...
by Ian Cochrane | Jun 16, 2013 | Asia
I’m sitting in Melbourne, recalling a visit to one of the world’s youngest nations – the Republic of East Timor – just 720km northwest of Darwin. My photographs show a damaged city with bullet-marked buildings; a country scarred by a month-long bout of violence...
by Ian Cochrane | Apr 22, 2013 | Asia, Oceania
I met Becky in the supermarket dairy aisle; a vivacious 40-something, born and raised locally. I’d seen her around, but we’d never met before Ed reappeared. I asked how my old friend was. “Not so good,” she said. “Still can’t sleep. And he really struggles with...
