July 29, 2010
Postcard from Rio de Janeiro: Carnaval behind bars
The winner of the "Miss Talavera Bruce" women's prison pageant. Rio de Janeiro has a murder rate as high as a war zone—millions of impoverished people here resort to crime for survival. A kid from the favelas of Rio has limited career options: kidnapper, cocaine trafficker, gang leader, robber, or hit man. For many, prison is safer than the streets, and comes with more reliable food... [More >>]
May 3, 2010
Postcard from Washington, D.C.: Talking to the Tea Party
“I’m Canadian.” This became my opening for every interview at the tax day Tea Party rally at the Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC. It seemed like the best way to distance myself from the camera crews and journalists who were swarming the interesting or outrageous among the two-to-three thousand ralliers. “I’m Canadian and I just want to know what’s happening today,”... [More >>]
April 21, 2010
Postcard from Marfa, Texas: Southern lights
Prada Marfa, one of Marfa, Texas' notable artworks. Marfa became a modern art destination when Donald Judd opened a museum there in the 1970s. When you drive into Marfa, Texas, from El Paso the first thing you come across is a tiny Prada store. No one works there and no one shops there—it’s a sculpture, built in situ by artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset. Marfa, current population 2,121, became... [More >>]
April 12, 2010
Postcard from El Salvador: Death at an election
A vandalized ARENA billboard in San Salvador. Photo by Luis Galdamez. On the night of March 15, 2009, I was surrounded by thousands of celebrating Salvadorans. The first left-wing president, Mauricio Funes of the FMLN, a left-wing political party, had just been elected and San Salvador was erupting into a sea of red. I had come to El Salvador to work as one of 5,000 election observers. The vote over,... [More >>]
April 7, 2010
Postcard from Honduras: Birth of the coup
Honduran citizens cast their votes in defiance of a military coup that ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and cancelled planned elections. Photo by Oswaldo Rivas/Reuters. Sunday morning was dark and my alarm didn’t go off, so I slept in. I was awakened late in the morning to a fellow gringo, my friend Luke, shouting through my window. “Ashley!” he yelled, “wake up, did you hear what happened?”... [More >>]
September 29, 2009
Postcard from London: On climate change, new message is “Blame Canada”
Protesters demonstrating Canada's tar sands development outside the Canadian High Commission in London. Photo by Zoe Cormier. I was pretty sure I knew what the Canadian flag, held upside down, was supposed to represent. But I had to ask anyway. Last Monday afternoon, standing outside the Houses of Parliament in London in Parliament square, I held my cell phone aloft with a hundred other protesters,... [More >>]
August 17, 2009
Postcard from Lusaka: No smoking. Really no smoking.
When Lusaka went smoke free, they really went smoke-free. Photo by Michael Musenga. As the wheels hit the hot asphalt of the runway, I look up to see the frenetic expressions on the faces of my fellow passengers—a look that falls somewhere between anxious and anaphylactic, and it’s clear they’re desperate to get off the plane. It’s been a short and relatively painless flight from Nairobi, Kenya,... [More >>]
July 20, 2009
Postcard from Liberia: The Prisoner
Prisoner in Butuo, Liberia. Photo credit: Myles Estey On Christmas Eve, 1989, Charles Taylor’s band of rebels stormed the small border village of Butuo, Liberia, taking over the police station and sparking a civil war. Chief Inspector Morris Gonylee waves dismissively at the state of ruin the station now lies in, a common sight in a nation struggling to rebuild from this 14-year conflict. A tethered... [More >>]
June 2, 2009
Postcard from Tokyo: Rise of the (vending) machines
Japanese vending machines, at your service any time. Creative Commons photo by David Ooms. In North America, we barely notice vending machines. They dispense soft drinks, water, sometimes coffee (or laundry soap in laundromats). In Japan, however, vending machines have been elevated to a fine art. To an outsider, these machines, called jidoohanbaiki, are ubiquitous — incredibly, there is one vending... [More >>]
