2018 - Insideotherplaces

2018

Musings on the mañana mentality, how different cultures think about time

In Britain we have borrowed mañana, the Spanish word for tomorrow, to describe that relaxed approach to timekeeping that becomes more apparent as you travel south in Europe, a characteristic that some would say only strengthens as you continue in the direction of the tropics. Once you cross the Mediterranean it mutates into the Arabic, “boukra in sha Allah” (tomorrow God willing), that delightful method of politely declining all future commitment by outsourcing the occurence of all events to the…

Under the mango trees in Manaus

The nightlife of Manaus, Brazil. Saturday night and it was party time outside the Manguieras bar, cockroaches from near and far had congregated in an erratic, scuttling dance formation around the warm stench of the drain to soak up the vibes and the bounty of decaying matter on offer. Grinning senior citizens strutted carefree to the four-piece band, the singer enthusiastically demonstrating an equally carefree attitude to harmony; the musicians expressing one of those Brazilian styles that demands only a…

Biker babes of Burkina Faso

Motorbikes, Muslims, fashion and the modern woman in Burkina Faso. When your brain does a Google image search on the terms Muslim women, African women or African Muslim women, what comes to mind? I won’t be so presumptuous to think that my regular readers are the kind of people to jump immediately to the stereotypes of poverty and oppression, or at the very least to move on from them after a moment’s reflection – after all there are many…

Village of Witches

Traditional religion and accusations of witchcraft in West Africa. Centuries after the introduction of Islam and Christianity to Sub-Saharan Africa, traditional religions may have been relegated to the margins in much of the continent but they still have a powerful hold over the culture of many Africans. Traditional religions, or at least elements of them, are often practiced alongside peoples’ professed faith, despite the best efforts of Imams and priests to paint the acts as haram or heretical. However, the…

Next time someone tells you Africans are lazy, send them to Ouagadougou

Its 40C, what do you fancy doing? Sitting in the shade, drinking some ice-cold beer, going for a swim? Work wouldn’t be at the top of your list would it? If you had to work, you’d probably envision some kind of air conditioned environment and a source of ice cubes for your cold drinks. You bone idle slob! What about lugging a pile of granite on your head up a steep slope or swinging a bloody great sledge-hammer all day,…

More shop art from Burkina Faso

The wonders of African shop art. I may be in a small group of weirdo aficionados of African shop art but I can’t get enough of it so here are a few more examples from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, for my fellow weirdos. This was certainly enough to convince me I had to buy a beer in this bar The art form always has to catch up with new technology, though it has to be said that solar panels provide little…

The dark side of Egyptian sex life online

It’s almost inevitable that the more you get to know a country, especially by making friends there, that you start to come across the darker sides to life, usually hidden from the passing tourist. Our own countries are no exception, as humanity’s baser urges hold little respect for wealth, culture or religion, these factors just influence the style in which these urges express themselves and how they are responded to by society. Almost universally it is women that are on…

The power of the place, in Palestine and beyond.

A look at the power conveyed by places of religious significance You can’t go far in Palestine and the region around it without tripping over a site of great religious and historical significance, particularly for those of us brought up in the Judeo-Christian traditions. So many place names take me back to early school days, when at morning assemblies and the occasional obligatory church service, us numerous unbelievers were subjected to Biblical extracts and the moral lessons they were…

The unhidden in Hebron

The tensions of life in the Palestinian city of Hebron If there is one place in Palestine where the stark realities of the occupation and the seemingly irreconcilable differences between the two sides cannot be hidden, it is in the ancient city of Hebron. Here, unlike elsewhere in Palestine, a Jewish community lives within the city itself. Even before you are confronted with the hard evidence of Hebron’s troubles you can pick up on the slightly downbeat feel in…

Palestine, what you don’t see

A neat, little village sits atop the gentle, olive shrouded slopes of a rounded hill, the terracotta tiles of the homes’ roofs gleam in the warm, Mediterranean sun. This pleasant, pastoral view could be almost anywhere in southern Europe, where the middle classes from further north come to invest in holiday homes and fatten their bellies on local cuisine. On a neighbouring hill sits another village, a bit older, less ordered, less terracotta, more concrete, but never the less very…

Year: 2018

Musings on the mañana mentality, how different cultures think about time

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Under the mango trees in Manaus

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Biker babes of Burkina Faso

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Village of Witches

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Next time someone tells you Africans are lazy, send them to Ouagadougou

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More shop art from Burkina Faso

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The power of the place, in Palestine and beyond.

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The unhidden in Hebron

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Palestine, what you don’t see

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