Posted inGeneral

Prague on the Vltava

New York used to be my favourite city, until I discovered Istanbul. Along the way I visited Prague (in 1999), and was fleetingly charmed by this Bohemian city on the Vltava, but my experience was vitiated by the stifling rationalism of the social theory conference I was attending at the time, where the Rawls and […]

Posted inGeneral

A farewell and the human need for ritual

As you prepare to return to China you seek a farewell ritual. As always, you are drawn to amazing hikes through unspoilt forest regions right where you live in Auckland, New Zealand. It’s unbelievable that you live in the biggest city in New Zealand, and yet, in half an hour’s walk, you can be sitting […]