ONE 7 • Charley Boorman: Two Paths on the Road
Let’s get it straight from the start. I have a few personal issues, which are triggered by Charley Boorman’s latest book By Any Means, so please allow me to put my cards on the table.
Category: ONE-7 • Nov 2008 • Giving & Changing
ONE 7 • Tomorrow Lies in Ambush: a conversation with Ken MacLeod
Science fiction is a time machine for the imagination, with a remarkable way of transporting us from the here-and-now to the distant past or the far-flung future. The problem is, according to author Neil Gaiman, “You can tell the date of an old science fiction novel by every word on …
ONE 7 • ONE on OBAMA : special section
“There’s no question that in the next thirty or forty years, a Negro can also achieve the same position that my brother has as President of the United States, certainly within that period of time.“ — Robert F. Kennedy, 1968
ONE 7 • Before Obama: Rickey, Robinson and King
Like most liberal Americans, I have awakened every morning since Election Day rubbing my eyes with disbelief about the outcome. Yet the more I hear the phrase “President- elect Barack Obama” the more I get used to it, and somewhere in the great beyond Wesley Branch Rickey and Jack …
ONE 7 • ONE on OBAMA : Election Night in Harlem
Coming from a place where sunny weather, palm trees and the “Hollywood” sign is the welcome mat for visitors — I never thought I’d move to cold weather, and a neighborhood of graffiti-covered brick buildings in Harlem, the capital of black America. Harlem is not only a community, it’s a …
ONE 7 • U.S. Election : Dispatches
Pennsylvania. October 19, 2008. Twenty-one electoral votes were up for grabs in the battleground state of Pennsylvania (PA) and pollsters were showing a tightening race between the two presidential candidates: Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain. With this in mind, my friends Stephanie and Anne and I decided to …
ONE 7 • How Obama Spoke to Me
After spending last year studying in New York, I am more interested in US politics than ever before. I watched debates and interviews, particularly with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama fighting it out. From the start I felt a strong affiliation with Obama. As a white British male in my …
ONE 7 • Me On the Outside
1. Confusion As a 6 year old kid growing up in Glasgow, in Scotland, I was moved from one area to another, getting passed around my family like some piece of used clothing. My father was not around. I quickly learned to hide my emotions, pretend to be someone else, …
ONE 7 • Life’s Lessons
Life can be heaven Or life can be hell It depends where you’re borne It depends where you dwell
ONE 7 • Giving Back
the realities of what can happen inside… Before prison I was a cheeky, arrogant little bastard who didn’t care about anyone other than myself. Add the consumption of alcohol and I turned into a complete animal. It’s not the question of who I was, it’s what I was.
ONE 7 • Give
What is it to give? The dictionary states that the meaning of the word ‘give’ is: “to grant something to somebody or to allow somebody to have something — such as power or right.” When I think back, only one thing sticks out that was given to me. When I …
ONE 7 • My Wee Sister
My Wee Sister
ONE 7 • Wullie
I am twenty-two years old and standing in a cold, bland church, looking at one of my best friends, lying in a dark, oak box. The sanctuary is pale with death. I think of my old days. There was drink, drugs, women, girls, some good banter and of course, plenty …
ONE 7 • Paris Notes: Once More with Feeling
Paris is the city of light and romance year-round. In spring, it teems with visitors and there is a certain kind of kinetic energy pulsing along its narrow winding streets that entices some women to walk home alone even in the dead of night. I must admit, as a Native …
ONE 7 • Thoughts on the Present Crisis
Thoughts on the Present Crisis John Calder Although my university training was in Political Economy, I have never practised economics, but I well remember what I learned, and my only surprise about the great financial bubble that has burst is that it took so long. I have been expecting it …
ONE 7 • Tangled Embroideries
The day after Diwali was always the quietest in Amrur. Street dogs, which spent most mornings howling after cyclists, crouched fearfully in garbage shelters. Three-legged autorickshaws that hooted and tooted while ferrying passengers from Amrur to other parts of Bangalore were silent, having been abandoned on street corners. Vendors with …