In Yoko Ogawa’s haunting novel The Memory Police, ordinary things — whole categories of things, such as birds, hats, and boats — begin to disappear from an island community. The few people who try to preserve those things, and who still have the capacity to remember them, are rounded up and interred. Most people, however, … Continue reading Foreign aid began to disappear. The world blinked.
History
England and France Both Lost. One Must Lose Again. That’s Wrong.
Addendum 19 July 2026: Apparently I have already been proven wrong about this piece, as the match between France and England — which many writers noted ”nobody wanted to play” — is already being called a ”classic”. Ah well. I won’t retract it. My main point about nostalgia still stands. /Alan One of the key … Continue reading England and France Both Lost. One Must Lose Again. That’s Wrong.
The Tragedy of Swedish Development Aid
It is horrible to watch something extremely important and undervalued being slowly undermined, perhaps ultimately destroyed, by people who do not understand it, and do not understand its worth. Including its worth to them. You would be forgiven for thinking the above was the introductory paragraph to an article about the United Nations. And alas, … Continue reading The Tragedy of Swedish Development Aid
Holding the Center in Difficult Times
A reflection on how not to go mad when things seem to be going crazy The first time I voted in the US presidential election, in 1980, I cast my vote for Congressman John Anderson. He was a former Republican running as an independent on a socially-liberal, fiscally-conservative platform. Anderson’s quixotic campaign is mostly forgotten … Continue reading Holding the Center in Difficult Times
Alan AtKisson 