A piece for the Kuwait Writing Club. David paused. James had just asked him if he wanted to go fishing Saturday afternoon, a regular thing they'd been doing for a few years. David realized he was going to have to tell James at one point or another that he had found a new girl. He'd known James since they kept tadpoles as pets. Since their mothers arranged birthdays for all the neighbourhood kids and the present of their dreams was a caterpillar tracked re...

I was told this piece should be reworked after presenting it at the writing club. If I get time, I will use this for guidance.I have an uncle who is a glass artist. When I was a kid, I never really had much appreciation for his work but I used to love walking into his studio. This is not like any other studio I have seen. It had what I can only describe as a glass studio smell. Slightly acrid. But clean. The place always had a sense of calm. Three or four room...

I have been having some thoughts about aid work last week. I realised a couple of days ago that my main beef with it is it sometimes doesn't preserve existing human agency in recipients, or encourage that to thrive when there isn't enough of it displayed by aid recipients. Human agency: Human agency is the ability of people to control their own lives. Everyone has the capacity to exert control over the quality and nature of their own lives. It's my ...

Welcome to the most unlikely comparison piece ever written. I am going to compare Kuwait with Cambodia. For the simple reason that I spent 10 months in the latter until last year and Kuwait is the next country I went to after that. First I will talk about myself, comparing my motivations for going to each country. Then I will cover how they face off against each other on a useful online GIS called If It Were My Home. Then I will talk about history. This will take...

Some days, Kuwait is great. I might solve a problem at work, do something impressive which makes me feel like I'm REALLY doing G(eographic)I(nformation)S(ystems)... or it might be because I do something with a club. So far I've managed to join four. The Kuwait Offshore Sailing Association (as opposed to KOMA...;-)), Desert Bikers Club Kuwait, Kuwait Writing Club and Kuwait Bibliophiles (a slightly creepily named book club). I have also been invited to joi...