One month ago, a child was born in a hospital in Lagos, Nigeria. It would normally be an inconsequential event – babies are born all the time, especially in a country with more than 155 million people. But this baby was born on the same day the United Nations Population Fund announced that the world… [Read more…]
October 7, 2011
Yesterday marked the fifth and final day of Durga Puja, a major Hindu festival dedicated to the Goddess Durga. The event marks the victory of Durga over the demon Mahishadura, and is a particularly significant religious festival for Bengali-speaking Hindus. The streets of Old Dhaka – particularly around Dhakeswari National Temple, Sadarghat port and Shakhari… [Read more…]
September 26, 2011
Amar desh, amar shopno. My country, my dream. Bangladesh is a nation of young people. About 50 million people, or one third of the population, make up the youth of Bangladesh. In Boda last week, in the far northwest of Bangladesh, about 50 of these young people met at a Youth Against Hunger forum to… [Read more…]
September 14, 2011
Sitting in the late afternoon sunlight watching the deep blue ocean and a game of beachside cricket between the locals sounds like a typical Aussie Summer weekend. In fact, I was on the other side of the Indian Ocean, in Sri Lanka, relishing the chance to witness the country celebrate the end of Ramadan, a… [Read more…]
August 16, 2011
Last week I ventured outside of Dhaka, seven hours along a dirt road – at times dusty, at times muddy, and at all times death-defying – to visit a peaceful upazila (district) in southwest Bangladesh. I spent the days squelching my toes in thick, gooey mud, showering in the morning rain, plucking guavas fresh from… [Read more…]
August 7, 2011
A new moon always brings new and exciting things. This week, it heralded the start of the holy month of Ramadan for Muslims around the world. I was standing on a rooftop in Rayer Bazaar, surrounded by a group of amazing young Bangladeshis volunteering at the Jaago Foundation, when word came that the new moon… [Read more…]
July 21, 2011
It’s almost two weeks since my plane touched down in Dhaka, Bangladesh, but I already feel like I’ve spent about a month here. Dhaka is a crazy and exciting city, and finding a house, doing intensive Bangla langauge lessons and embracing the Deshi way of life have all made for an even more exciting start!… [Read more…]
June 13, 2011
I’m currently staying in the little village of Moon Hill, just outside Yangshuo. Yangshuo is about one hour north of Guilin, the province of Guangxi’s capital. The quaint village of Moon Hill sits about 10 minutes out of Yangshuo. Named for the famous crescent shape etched into the mountain behind the village, it is a… [Read more…]
June 10, 2011
“Stand on the Bund at night and be humbled. Because it’s clear it’s not our century anymore.” – Tom Ford I spent yesterday in the buzzing craziness of Shanghai. It was my first return since visiting in January 2009, and it seems a lot has changed in such a short time! Here are some of… [Read more…]
June 8, 2011
We are constantly told that China is the factory of the world. It’s true – choose any item of clothing that you’re wearing right now and there’s a high chance it was made in China. If none of your clothes were made here, then pick almost any item on your desk. Even your precious iPhone… [Read more…]
May 27, 2011
English may well be considered the closest thing we’ve got to a “global language”, but anybody who thinks that our native-speaker status gives us a linguistic upper-hand is very mistaken. Depending on which websites you visit and which newspapers you read, there are approximately 300 million English learners in China. According to a study by… [Read more…]
May 22, 2011
Today I visited the most beautiful site of one of China’s most beautiful cities (their words not mine, though I do agree!) – West Lake, or in hanzi, 西湖. One of most striking features of Hangzhou is that unlike many Chinese cities – which limit their parks and nature to designated areas – Hangzhou is… [Read more…]
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December 2, 2011
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