Stories

REPORTAGE & ESSAYS

Statue wars: What should we do with troublesome monuments?

From Cape Town to Charlottesville, public monuments have become flashpoints in the struggle between left and right in a post-truth world. Should any statue be safe? A deep dive into the history of the present moment.

(6,000 words)

'We stand to lose a whole era': How the 1970s could vanish from Vancouver

The Guardian

The Empire Landmark Hotel is the latest brutalist icon set to be demolished in a frenzy of property speculation. Is it wrong to destroy an entire decade?

(1,645 words)

Monrovia in the Spotlight: Can this fragile city ever really replace 'Ma Ellen'?

The Guardian

Since the civil war, Liberians have known only one leader: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who helped transform the ruined capital. Now some observers worry that this month’s election could undo Monrovia’s progress.

(1,300 words)

'I'm moving to Canada': the cops, pop stars and athletes who made good on the threat

The Guardian

From the female squash champion fleeing the Taliban, to the gay popstar who became a hit back in macho Brazil, it’s often Canada’s newcomers who can tell its most dramatic stories.

(800 words)

Race and real estate: how hot Chinese money is making Vancouver unliveable

The Guardian

After Canada’s ugly episode of racism in the early 20th century, Vancouverites feel uneasy talking about how this beautiful but unassuming city became one of the world’s least affordable: an unprecedented flood of capital from China.

(2,240 words)

The story of cities: Vancouver dumps its freeway plan for a more beautiful future

The Guardian

In the 1960s, Vancouver’s historic downtown was at risk of being razed for modern road projects – only for an extraordinary protest movement to turn the tide, helping transform it into one of North America’s most ‘liveable’ cities.

(1,850 words)

Reading cities: books about Vancouver

The Guardian

As a relatively young global city, Vancouver can play up to its brash, breezy image. But some of its most celebrated books are rooted in harder times, as it struggled to find its place in the world, and to deal with racial tensions.

(1,300 words)

My big fat Myanmar wedding

Newsweek

In rebel-occupied Myanmar, desperate times call for mass weddings.

(1,337 words)

A dead boy

Hazlitt

The choice he had: between a life of boredom in a displaced persons camp or joining the armed struggle. A dispatch from among the Kachin Independence Army of northern Myanmar.

(1,242 words)

Kicking the habit in Myanmar

VICE

Myanmar is the second largest opium producer in the world. In some parts of the country, addiction rates among young men are thought to approach 50 percent. It's hard to get clean when a hit of high-grade heroin costs only £1.

(2,090 words)

The war goes on

World Policy Journal

The Kachin Independence Army, defending a religious minority of devout Christians in Buddhist Myanmar (Burma), has bulked up its military forces in the face of increased violence against civilians, torture, and pillaging of properties by Myanmar government troops. University students, women, and children have joined the resistance. (Full portfolio here.)

(1,637 words)

What life is like for Liberians dealing with the ebola outbreak

VICE

"It's like it was during wartime. I remember people were fearful to go out; they just stayed home. It is the same today. Except, with Ebola, you can't see the enemy."

(1,400 words)

Goodbye, babylon king

Virginia Quarterly Review

The civil war in Liberia was one of Africa's longest and bloodiest, destroying hundreds of thousands of lives. With the ouster of warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor, can Liberians overcome his legacy of brutality? A dispatch from Monrovia on the eve of an historic presidential election.

(8,740 words)

In Somalia's shadow

Virginia Quarterly Review

How a determined group of refugees, rebels, and diasporans are building a democracy in the shadow of the world's longest-running failed state. A dispatch from Somaliland, Africa's best-kept secret.

(11,450 words)