Poet, Activist, Humanist
What in the world could these three items have in common? The answer is “me,” although Inconsistency might be a better term. Every article or book about blogging emphasizes consistency. You don’t have time to go to my blog and discover nothing new. Why would you ever return? This is my confession, but I … Read more
A recent news article sparked my interest in this topic, so I did a little research on my own. My data on maternal mortality rates (MMR) is from the September 2016 issue of the scientific and medical journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) Fact Book, the World Bank, and UNICEF. First some … Read more
Excerpts from Voice of a Voyage: Rediscovering the World During a Ten-year Circumnavigation. “Polynesian culture has been called “a culture of mobility” in academic papers. Polynesia means many islands, and the Polynesians were able to inhabit a large area of the South Pacific because of their extraordinary long-distance, open-water sailing and navigation skills.” “The early … Read more
Dispersal is a different type of “migration.” There may be negative reasons for it—usually overcrowding—but it doesn’t have the violent upheaval characteristics of being a refugee or displaced person. I wrote about the dispersal of cattle egrets, crocodiles, and the amazing journeys of the Polynesians in “Voice of a Voyage: Rediscovering the World During a … Read more
“The migrant is the ‘defining figure of the 20th century,’ so wrote Salman Rushdie some 20 years ago” re-quoted in a recent New York Times Book Review article on the literature of immigration by Paul Sehgal. The refugee is also the defining figure of the early 21st century—at least politically. From tragic photos of dead … Read more