Hospitality and Inequality
Pakistan, Lahore, September 2019
What is normal?
This question has been swirling in my mind for the two weeks I had the privilege to spend in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. Confronted with a different society with different...
In Israel everyone comes from somewhere
Israel Tel Aviv Jerusalem February 2019 Who does not want to see Jerusalem just once in his life? It is curiosity that brought me here. Would Israel be like what I imagined based on the...
Roots and identity, tradition and change
March 2018 Taroudant/Marrakech Morocco
In the Sidi Ayoub area of the Medina (the town inside the city walls) of Marrakesch Abderrazzak El Maana unexpectedly addresses me in my own language with a charming southern...
Maria Bakalo in Lviv
Ukraine, Lviv, December 2017 2018 Lviv
Lead picture: Maria Bakalo (Masha) during a rehearsal of a new performance. I met Masha in 2016 and revisited her in 2017. Simferopol is her birthplace but she moved to...
Minsk: Sasha and Korpus kulturtsenter
Living in Belarus
Belarus, December 2017 Nearly three decades ago the Sovjet Union disintegrated, fragmenting into a multitude of states, each developing their own way. I am in Belarus and the sensation emerges the clock just...
Entrepreneurship in Lviv: Natalya and Vitaly
A start up business in leather goods in Lviv
Ukraine, Lviv, December 2017
Natalya teaches at University and gives language lessons online. She was my teacher from whom I learned the basics in Ukrainian. Teaching, however,...
Saul in Krakow
Auschwitz
January 2016
My head is still full of my visit to Birkenau. What most impressed me was the vastness of the camp and what meager protection the barracks gave so death resulted also from just...
Bow strings from Simone in Amsterdam
Destiny
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, September 2016
Simone looks up from her work to me through the open door of her workshop. She just finished her rolled cigarette. It is a perfect hot early September afternoon in...
Beachclub Samotrakhi Greece
Tourism and the EU
June 2011
More than 30 years ago my wife and I had a wonderfull time camping on this relatively unknown Greek island. On the ferry from the mainland from Alexandopoulis the presence...
Brains but no work in Sibiu Rumania
A new Euro generation tries to build a life
I am on the train from Brasov to Sibiu, in the middle of Rumania. The weather is cold and there is some snow. The train slides...