On the Steppes of Central Asia
“Ah, might I have a word with you, Liebnitz?” came the hesitant voice of Dryan Tweedie, the Centre’s archivist. He stood in the doorway of the office where ace logician LDC Liebnitz was staring morosely at a table on which were placed…
TakeDown — The Pursuit and Capture of Kevin Mitnick, America’s Most Wanted Computer Outlaw — by the Man Who Did It
TakeDown is a dogged pursuit thriller in the genre of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing — and the comparison is not meant to be literary. It is difficult to get terribly worked up about the nature of the crime even if the…
Three Piece
It was about 9 a.m. and already hot outside. Strong Guyanese coffee had not yet stoked my metabolism when the telephone rang. It was Baltasar, the short, urbane Ambassador from a neighbouring country.
Ho Ho Ho in Hanoi
Your card, which is certainly one of the most welcome I have received, arrived in yesterday’s bag. I had not forgotten that I had promised you a report on Hanoi, and thought that a sort of report-cum-Christmas card would interest you.
Romania (and Ceausescu) Revisited
From 1979 to 1983, I served as Canadian Ambassador to Romania. In April 1995, my wife Glenna and I went back. I wanted to do some research on Ceausescu, and I had asked my wonderful host, ambassador Murray Fairweather, to arrange a…
The Search for F-BELV
The four-engine Stratoliner was incongruous as it lumbered to the end of the runway at Wattay Airport, Vientiane on Monday, October 18, 1965. Around it were modern machines of war, mostly from the United States, though echoes of France were still to…
Red China Blues
John K. Fairbank, reviewing Edgar Snow’s first book, Journey to the Beginning, describes him as a reporter who avoids the “oversimplicity of the library researcher … and of the columnist who has to know what he thinks in the first place.” As…
And Now a Word from Our Sponsors…
“I’se the bye who builds the boat, and I’se the bye who sails and bails her, and I’se the bye who catches the fish and brings them home to Liza.” With apologies to this traditional Newfoundland folk song’s original author, it was…
Harvest Pilgrims
“Is it true that in Canada people throw things away?” I was asked during one of my visits to Monte Prieto, a small rural community for some 400 families near the city of Acambaro in central Mexico.
D’un continent à l’autre : des forêts et des hommes
Tout dernièrement encore, avait lieu une conférence sur la Biodiversité et son importance pour le Canada et l’économie canadienne, où le maître-mot des diverses présentations était: «il nous faut passer à l’action»; la mobilisation des différents acteurs (gouvernement, industrie, université et le…
