PinnedMember-onlySemi complete list of contents (thanks to Pauline Evanosky and Timothy J. Sabo…) but look through the lists (thanks James Bellerjeau) to find articles categorised roughly by subjectHere’s where you can find a (semi) complete list of all that I’ve written so far. …Table Of Contents6 min readTable Of Contents6 min read
1 day agoMember-onlyCrossing the RubiconWhy does it matter what the land or people were like before now? Because firstly, we forget what things looked like so, so quickly, and this is like forgetting what a face looks like before it’s bloody, bruised and bleeding. It’s important to recall what health looks like. Secondly, we…Papagayo7 min readPapagayo7 min read
Published in Southeast Asia·4 days agoMember-onlySamarinda VSO — the courtyard, the forest, the universityI worked in Samarinda in 1992. I was 26 years old but oh, dear, I was unwell. I had an eating disorder that ruled my days, I was promiscuous for all the wrong reasons (zero self respect) and I was angry particularly about injustices. But this is not a political…Kalimantan4 min readKalimantan4 min read
Jan 22Member-onlyBeth Matthews, broken promises, broken livesWhen I was a young child When I was a young child, I was taken from my beautiful home and my kind, loving parents and put into an institution (in the form of a boarding school). …Suicide10 min readSuicide10 min read
Jan 18Member-onlyGreediumAlmost every time I open Medium, I find myself bombarded with articles about how to get rich, how to write for publications that will make me rich (almost always if not instantaneously, then within a few weeks, or months at most), how to become more proficient as a writer, or…Medium5 min readMedium5 min read
Jan 17Member-onlyStretch further: a review of Holding Moseshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=SdLLizKayK Holding Moses is a very short (16 minute long) documentary about dealing with the almost overwhelming challenge of caring for a profoundly “disabled” (I’ll use this word because the documentary does) child. Its relevance to social care work is obvious: we are often caring for people who other people…Disability3 min readDisability3 min read
Published in ILLUMINATION·Jan 7Member-onlySpirit searching OBEs and transforming the selfish dreamI’ll talk here about whether or not there’s a soul, or spirit, on the basis of the experiences people might have had of OBE, or out of body experiences. …Out Of Body Experience9 min readOut Of Body Experience9 min read
Published in De Philosophia·Jan 4Member-onlyFree will — why your world will not collapse if it isn’t what you think it isMagda Osman has written an interesting piece on why people still believe they make free choices about things like what to buy when they are confronted by advertising, or who to vote when they are bombarded with political propaganda. She ends by saying, “ultimately, the world as we know it…Free Will3 min readFree Will3 min read
Jan 3Member-onlyAI generated answer to the question: what is the ecological emergency? (And my response)I’ve been following the recent debates about the value (and inappropriate use of) AI. I signed up for Chat GPT (Generative Pre-Trained Transformer) to see what the fuss was all about. …Open AI5 min readOpen AI5 min read
Jan 2Member-onlyEcofriendly ways to live with other species (and when to decide enough’s enough)Ducks are great. Too many ducks are not so great. Their droppings are slippery. But this article isn’t about ducks. It’s about other species we normally think of as being pests. I’m writing this while I watch a spider walking at top speed in loops and zig zags across the…Rats4 min readRats4 min read