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…

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Nine Glimpses of Lebanon

Things aren’t always what you might think they would be in Lebanon 1. The Chevrolet Camaro is a man’s car, a real man’s car. Its muscular solidity just shouts America! at you. There’s no mistaking its form for some limp wristed, feminine, European design. But this is Lebanon, not Buttfuck Tenessee and the driver isn’t a hooch swilling redneck but an immaculately dressed Muslim lady, her head a mass of impossibly elegant hijab folds, a dazzle of shimmering colour. Her…

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To live and die in Toraja

Warning: animal lovers may find some of the images distressing    In the lush hills of Tana Toraja in central Sulawesi the most important part of life is, without doubt, death. It is an event which calls for a great deal of time and expense and is firmly rooted in ancient traditions, despite the majority of the population being Christian. The piety of the Torajans disguises the fact that Christianity is largely a very recent arrival: attacks from Muslim lowlanders (which…

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The church of God and Mammon

Liberia’s coastal town of Buchanan is home to a lively Ghanaian fishing community known as Fanti Town, named after the region and its people in southern Ghana. Sharing Christianity and the English language makes them a compatible mix with the locals. It should be pointed out that although these immigrants generally understand Liberian Krio (as in creole form of language) English, to us it may as well originate from Planet Zogblax 3 in the Acturian Nebula. What may seem reasonably logical when read in a…

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Armenia: too much history

History is everything in Armenia, particularly its Christian heritage. In fact to question someone’s religion can be seen as questioning their very Armenian character. Given that it became the world’s first Christian state in 301 AD (followed in the next few decades by Georgia and Ethiopia) one could hardly blame them for thinking otherwise. Decades of atheist communism made not the slightest dent in their belief. So it comes as no surprise that the landscape is dotted with ancient monasteries…

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