By Jonathon Van Maren With the constantly shifting political and international landscape leaving many of us trying to figure out what is going on, I thought I’d write a short post explaining which writers I go to when I’m trying to make sense of things. Here are the top five—I hope they help you navigate…
By Jonathon Van Maren More from on the road in Africa… Traveling from place to place in Africa has been interesting. The airport in Zanzibar, for example, is perhaps the most ramshackle and rundown aviation establishment I have ever seen, and I’ve been in some pretty sketchy airports. In the bathroom, only one of the…
By Jonathon Van Maren The overt religiosity here in Tanzania sometimes crosses the line into the absurd. I’m not just talking about many of the names, which take the form of prayers: Praygod, Godlisten, Godbless, Amina (Amen)—but the names of some of the local establishments. In the village of Usa, for example, I spotted “The…
By Jonathon Van Maren It’s always been hard to figure out what Glenn Beck is all about, because he always seems to be in the midst of some great transformation. As a young radio host, he was an alcoholic and a drug addict watching his marriage implode because of his substance abuse, launching him on…
By Jonathon Van Maren My first update was posted here. Second update, this time from Tanzania… **** Certain cultural standards can be confusing at times. For example, Charmaine informed me that we could not hold hands in public, as that would be seen as inappropriate. However, male friends can hold hands in public at any…
By Jonathon Van Maren Here they are, stream-of-consciousness style. **** At the main market in downtown Kigali, it was easy to see why the locals were so insistent on hurrying us over to their stalls to buy their wares: it was to ensure that we actually beat the massive swarms of black flies that were…
By Jonathon Van Maren So it turns out that if you remain utterly comatose for an entire nine-hour flight, the stewardess may get worried. She obviously had not heard that travel clinics now dispense sleeping pills to “help deal with jetlag,” so I gulped one down during takeoff from Amsterdam, wondered briefly if it would…
By Jonathon Van Maren I anticipated that quite a few people would disagree with my analysis of Milo Yiannopoulos after attending one of his speaking gigs at Michigan State University last week, but I was mildly surprised at a few of the points of disagreement. He’s brilliant! some said, which is something I do not…
By Jonathon Van Maren Behold! Behold! I bring glad tidings–glad tidings of great joy, to you and to all people! Thus rang the voices of the Hosanna Choir to sing of the birth of the King. For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given. His name shall be called Jesus,…
By Jonathon Van Maren When we pulled up to Conrad Hall at Michigan State University for—and you’ll have to excuse the language—Milo Yiannopoulos’s “Dangerous F****t Tour,” there was already a massive pileup of angry people up against the double glass doors, their hoarse screams indicating that they’d been there for awhile even though we were…