Freelance writer and editor
My article on renewable energy in Orkney is in this week’s New Statesman, both in print and online.
I travelled to Orkney last summer to research this, though of course it’s up to date with all the latest news developments. The article looks two main types of alternative energy – the research and development of marine energy (wave and tidal power) and the community-owned wind turbines on the smaller islands.
I have an article on BusinessWeek.com today about US immigration and how alcohol is a factor. As well as comment from the State Department, it involves a fantastic case study about a British man and an American woman who married last year but are still separated because the US Embassy turned down his Green Card application because of a nine-year-old drink driving conviction. Over the past five years there has been a huge jump in the number of people turned down for visas on the basis of a “physical or mental disorder”, which includes alcohol problems. For more, please read the story.
BusinessWeek is my first US client in journalism. (In the blogging space, I also write for EcoSalon). Talk about starting at the top! I hope to write more for BusinessWeek soon.
After five years in London, the opportunity came up to move to San Francisco. I’m always one for a new adventure so I seized the chance and for the past few months I’ve been working on the arrangements in my spare time. Since I’m from Sydney originally, I’ve told my family that I am slowly moving home in a westerly direction!
I arrived here yesterday and I’m focusing first on getting settled in my new home and sorting out the paperwork to be allowed to work here in the US. Hopefully this won’t take too long because I’m keen to start writing for some US publications and also to report from the West Coast for British and Australian publications. There is plenty to write about, whether in my specialist fields of media, social reportage and the environment, or as a travel writer exploring California and the Pacific North-West.
In July I travelled to Damascus to attend an Iraqi wedding. It’s too dangerous to get married in Baghdad these days so people are increasingly crossing the border to Syria to get hitched. I wrote about it for G2, The Guardian’s daily features supplement, and the piece was published today. You can read it online but if you get a chance, do check out the print version with all the pretty pictures by my friend and colleague Peter Garmusch.
The South China Morning Post, which is the English-language newspaper in Hong Kong, published my article on the Chinese immigrant community in Dakar, Senegal today. The online version is behind a pay wall but accessible by searching the SCMP.com archive. My editor has kindly given me permission to reproduce the PDF on my site.
I went to Dakar in May last year and wrote about the growing Chinese population and the city as a travel destination for Anyway magazine. I interviewed world music star Youssou N’Dour for Anyway as well. Since my trip there has been a government crackdown on street trade, which has exacerbated tensions, even sparking rioting in November. The SCMP article updates and refocuses the story to make it more newsy and relevant for Chinese readers.
This is the first article I have written for SCMP but I hope not the last. I would like to expand to write for other English-language newspapers across Asia and the world.
Violence and political instability made weddings in Baghdad virtually impossible in the years following the Iraq War. In July 2008 I joined one family who crossed the … [Read More...]
In the business world, describing your boss as “ape-like” is not typically considered a compliment. Yet it turns out there is a lot we can learn from chimpanzees about effective leadership. … [Read More...]
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