By W.E.B. Dubois An old book, over a hundred years old already. Some of the essays have passed from contemporary relevance into historical record, but it is history rarely discussed, from an intimate perspective and the prose hasn’t lost any of its power. Nobody writes like that anymore! The Greeks, the Bible, Shakespeare. The Veil, […]
Author Archives: bingregory
Commander of the Faithful: Review
By John W Kiser An enjoyable and easy introduction to an amazing life. The book is strongest in the first third, showing his upbringing and describing Algerian society in that period, and in the last third, when his exile and travels involved him in many important and unexpected events. Meeting Imam Shamil the Chechen Mujahid […]
Nothing Left to Say – Blues Gang
Nothing Left to Say Translation by Bin Gregory Productions Riding my bike down to the store Middle of the day, in the middle of the heat Who’s got the strength to tap rubber Nothing left to say If I could, I’d be a school teacher Down in Kuala Pilah Fields of paddy, buffalos all over Water […]
Tapai ubi, tapai nasi
A banana leaf wrapped and held with lidis could hold just about anything. In this case, it holds tapioca root, ubi kayu, that has … crossed over. Normally a dense, bland, starchy tuber considered poverty food or at best home cooking, it is transformed into a pillowy soft sweetness soaking in a fiery liqueur
KL Bird Park Part 2
The Kuala Lumpur Bird Park was so big and so fun we had to go back again. This year we were less two aunties, but we picked up seven cousins, making for a party of two lone adults riding herd on 14 young people. We only made it to half the park the first time around, […]
Gurindam 12 Fasal 6
by Raja Ali Haji (1808-1873)
English translation © Bin Gregory Productions
This is the gurindam of the sixth issue:
Seek you a companion
Who can be for you a medicine …
Parang: the Malay machete
“Take the parang beneath the stairs
Use the whetstone on an edge grown dull.
That faith be kept safe in prayer
Prostrate daily five times in full.”
Gardening in the tropics is a constant battle against the jungle. Being properly armed means carrying a machete. From Brazil to the Congo to the island of Borneo, farmers wield some form of long, sturdy knife for slashing and hacking back the relentless encroaching green. The Malaysian machete is the parang.
Review: The Moor’s Account
By Laila Lalami. A conquistador leads a party of 600 into present-day Florida. A decade later, four men from the expedition emerge in Mexico: three Spainards and a black Muslim. This is The Moor’s Account. If it is fiction, it is fiction truer than any American history I got in high school. It’s a story […]