by phil | Oct 16, 2012 | Camels, Mali
I’m on my way back to Mali as I write this. Bus to New York. Subway to JFK. Flight to Brussels. Hang out for two days. Flight to Lisbon. Flight to Bamako. Despite whatever fatigue I may experience, I am gearing up for a record breaking camel drawing mission that...
by phil | Sep 26, 2012 | Mali
Diplomats, analysts, neocons, ECOWAS, the AU, the UN, and the government of France, among others, are talking about how to best dislodge the armed Islamist groups occupying northern Mali. I have a simple 5 part plan that does not involve negotiation or the use of...
by phil | Sep 15, 2012 | Cote D'Ivoire, Mali, Stories
While waiting for a customs agent to come to an agreement with a man that had many jerry cans of palm oil on our minibus, we stood in the road and listened to Chéché Dramé on my girlfriend’s cellphone. Trucks and busses tore past, slaloming around potholes,...
by phil | Jul 31, 2012 | Mali
The following 3 video clips appear tired and well worn, but the footage is only 2 years old. Originally recorded to VHS, the audio is warped and the picture is faded. Another layer of quality was stripped away when I filmed this with an iphone 3gs as it played on an...
by phil | Jul 24, 2012 | Mali
Sunset at Bamako Plage With attention rightfully focused on northern Mali, a story is unfolding in Bamako that should not be ignored. Before I get into it, let me first say that I was never in support of the coup. Furthermore, this post is not some kind of retroactive...
by phil | Jul 5, 2012 | Mali
Mariam is the oldest sister in a Tamashek family from Timbuktu. I have written about Mariam’s family before. I stayed with them in early January, when Timbuktu was a different place. We slept at the base of a dune, a 5 minute walk from a round the clock...
