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 10, 2018 | Europe
“I have less and less time and more and more to say” – Pablo Picasso We sit on the edge of the wharf, the paving stones cold, the coffee shops closed. I gaze behind us at rows of seaside apartments, the drab dollhouse facade a collage of browns...
by Ian Cochrane | Apr 28, 2014 | Europe
From Berlin I’ve flown to Paris late winter, driving north for two hours and overnighting in the hamlet of Behen, a classic French Chateau with stately entry paved for WW2 German tanks, towers and walls from 15th and 18th centuries, the stables once bombed by...
by Ian Cochrane | Dec 25, 2013 | Africa
I’ve been stuck in Johannesburg traffic for an hour now; finally pulling off the treadmill of Rivonia Rd, and into the Nigerian Consulate compound – open Tuesday and Thursday mornings only – to be greeted by a mountain of a security man casually...