Three years ago, from a roadside in Kabul, I witnessed one of many refugee camps clinging to the outskirts of the sprawling city. The people inside were the survivors of another freezing winter in which young an old alike had frozen to death due to the hard choices between buying wood, Read more…
Waking to the news of the Brexit result in a Brussels hotel room I felt nauseous. Months and years have passed and I still feel physically sick at the mere thought of it. Existential Identity Crisis I nightmarishly recall once saying I held no sense of victim-hood within my British Read more…
Only eight months ago the people of debt-ridden Greece were asked to vote in their own EU referendum. Their issue was whether to accept a bail out deal offered by the so-called Troika. Their question: “Should the draft deal put forward by the EU, ECB & IMF, be accepted?” Was not as straight forward Read more…
Visa-free travel is something all of us in Europe take for granted, all of us that is, except the people of Kosovo – a Republic that arises from and with the direct support of European nations and others. So why would you liberate a bird only to trap it? Why? Read more…
Gevgelija, on the Greek – Macedonian border. Northern Europeans, heading south for holidays, are fleetingly rubbing shoulders with hundreds of refugees moving in the opposite direction, escaping conflict, persecution and poverty heading towards Western Europe – from Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Eritrea & Somalia. Traffic on the refugee route: via Turkey > Read more…
One hundred years since that fateful day when Gavrilo Princip stepped out of a Sarajevo sandwich shop and saw the car of Archduke Franz Ferdinand make a wrong turn onto the street corner at which he stood, Sarajevo remembered in its own, sometimes contrary way. Two shots took the life Read more…
The industrial remains of Soviet Socialism are very evident in the towns on the outskirts of the Bulgarian capital Sofia. Decay and dereliction scars the region. Listen to a podcast description of the startling views from a bus window travelling west towards Macedonia. Photo: A warm welcome in the village Read more…