One of the more startling things a newcomer learns upon moving to the United Kingdom is that — amazingly — it’s not a part of Europe. Contrary to years of geography learned in school and from maps, not to mention conventional world opinion, Britons consider themselves very much apart from their neighbours on “the Continent.” […]
Manolis Priniotakis
Manolis Priniotakis is a freelance writer based in London. He is writing a book about his travels in Central Asia.
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China’s Designated Terrorists:
After 3 hours of passing through impoverished villages and empty stretches of the Taklamakan Desert — local language for “you go in but you don’t come out” — the Toyota Land Cruiser veered off the dirt road and into a dry riverbed. Another hour, then the 4×4 stopped to allow everybody out to continue by […]
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China’s Secret Separatists:
Belgian students have an odd way of introducing newcomers. At the beginning of the school year, university drinking clubs — the low country equivalent of fraternities and sororities — dress new recruits in white lab coats and baseball caps with improbably long bills, force them to drink excessively, roll in chicken excrement, and then parade […]
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Out in the Cold:
“Pardon, ou est les bureaux de l’UNHCHR?” The Swiss soldier consulted a map. “UNHCR?” he asked. “Non, l’UNHCHR.” “Non, l’UNHCR.” The alphabet soup of aid- and relief-organization headquarters in and around the United Nations nerve center in Geneva can be a bit confusing to the casual visitor, apparently for security as well. Up the hill […]