Showing 71 - 80 of 118
The Underground Railroad revisited
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 11/08/2014
» Slavery is as old as man, practised well before the Hebrew slaves in Egypt. The populace of captured cities and defeated countries became slaves. The men were forced to do the most menial labour, the women often sold to slave traders, winding up as a prostitutes. It’s a profitable business.
Here we go again
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 04/08/2014
» Mark Twain said that anybody could be president of the US, then quipped that anybody is. Sarcastic, but not untrue. In its less than two-and-a-half-century history, the US has had few chief executives worthy of the position. However, according to the democratic process, no matter how corrupt and/or incompetent, they are voted in and have to be voted out.
Gregorian chants
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 21/07/2014
» Since The Da Vinci Code, novelists have been trying to outdo Dan Brown with plots to rock the foundations of the beliefs of 1 billion Roman Catholics, but have had no discernible effect on Holy Mother Church. What became of Jesus, who lived and died a Jew, is a moot question.
A great battle
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 14/07/2014
» All through World War II I’d watched the likes of John Wayne and Gary Cooper taking on the Germans and the Japanese. But the combination of William Shakespeare and Laurence Olivier battling medieval France left an even stronger impression. Rah-Rah was the order of the day during WWII, yet the English king’s rousing pap talk to his troops in Henry V was patriotism personified. And they went on to win the field at Agincourt.
An acquired taste
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 30/06/2014
» The vast majority of us are social creatures — family, friends and community. The relationships, companionships, interchanges seem a natural part of life. Yet there are those who reject this. To paraphrase Greta Garbo, they want to be alone. They feel that they don’t need anyone to be content. Religious figures have gone into the wilderness throughout time to commute with God, several returning with “evidence” that they have succeeded. On the whole, though, we don’t respect loners. They don’t want to be with other people? Could they be dangerous? What are they trying to hide? They are not natural. It gives me the creeps. We don’t even like to read about them. They are, however, the subject of books, non-fiction and fiction. Yank Dean Koontz made them his literary niche decades ago. His characters aren’t ghosts, ghouls, zombies, vampires or werewolves, but people encountering them, almost always in the darkness, mistake them for one or another. More often than not, they are harmless, but are soon set upon, nonetheless.
The Preacher vs the Tracker
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 09/06/2014
» In times of war, those we are fighting are our foes and the enemies of all mankind. We can’t excoriate them enough. But in times of peace, which bogeymen do we direct our fear and hatred at? In the cinema, it is aliens from other galaxies and creatures from beneath the earth. Novelists turn to the mass media and find that they have three choices: Muslim terrorists; Somali pirates; Russia’s expansionist activities. To be sure, each is dangerous in the short and long run. Writers whose plots contain two of the three deserve a gold star. A brickbat to those who throw in one to spice up their dull stories.
The silents
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 24/02/2014
» Alongside co-authors, Yank scrivener Clive Cussler turns out at least two books annually, not all novels. Writing is his night job. A seafarer by day, he and his crew hunt for lost ships, treasure too. Over the years he has had several literary creations. Dirk Pitt is the most popular.
An honest lawyer
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 17/02/2014
» Truth be told — I’m a sucker for courtroom dramas. Inherit The Wind, Witness For The Prosecution and Judgement At Nuremberg are my all-time favourites. Some courtroom novels or plays are adapted to the screen, others made into movies or television shows. Many remain in book form.
Taiping women
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 27/01/2014
» Yank author, Thai resident, Dean Barrett is fluent in several Chinese dialects as well as knowledgable in China's history and mythology. He is perhaps best known for his pictorial books about beautiful Thai women. It may be said that he has beauty on the brain. Every woman in his novels is "beautiful". He never tires of using the term, once a page minimum.
'Who cares' barrier
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 13/01/2014
» This is the era of information, but knowing it all gives virtually everybody a headache. Their response to "Don't you want to know?" is "Who cares?".