Archive for September, 2005

Gordana’s lifeline is a pre-paid mobile phone. It is the one thing she trusts.

It is her link with the outside world, her banking system, it allows her to map her route into Ireland and it is the only way of circumventing the endemic corruption that blights her homeland.

If you want to understand the next leader of Europe’s most powerful and important nation, get your hands on a copy of Stasiland by Ann Funder.

This brilliant book deals with the emotional scars left on the entire East German population by the Stasi – the state secret police.

What will happen to our civilisation if we have no power?

Could we survive?

During the 18th century when Louisiana and Mississippi were home to French-speaking Arcadians or Cajuns, their black slaves also spoke French.

Many of the slaves worked on the New Orleans dock, which at the time was the commercial centre of the cotton industry. When a ship docked safely, the stevedores shouted ‘au quai’� to indicate that all was fine. Over time, this expression mutated into common parlance and eventually became along with Marlboro, Levis and Disney part of the lexicon of America.

This time of year reminds me of the trauma of first love. The last weekend in August signalled the final days of Irish college, with tears, hugs and promises to write. I have vivid memories of packed trains pulling out of stations full of bawling, hysterical teenagers shrieking as if they were about to be fed to the Khmer Rouge.