Jack Sanger – Jack Sanger

Missing the link – out of the loop

Very occasionally, owing to the exigencies of fate, you can travel blissfully unaware of something that has been going on for years. I am not talking about a spouse’s affair or a tumour silently gorging itself on some part of your body, or the fact that an inter-stellar domino effect of galactic implosions will be… Know More
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Of Kakis and Coconuts

I’m in France again under a sky like half a starling’s egg. The garden has survived the winter (it rained and there is still snow on Mount Canigou to feed the rivers). I had a bad dream that the kaki tree would have died but it is there, glossy leaved and sprightly. If you haven’t… Know More
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A Cloud over Cuckoo Land

I am leaving Ghana tomorrow for the UK and then France. France is where my house is. It is smallish and on the lap of Mount Canigou in the Pyrenees, with a thirty-mile vista one way and a vertical rock face a little behind. I have seen eagles slide over it, wild boar tramping across… Know More
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The corrupt world of moats, ducks and toilet seats

From a Ghanaian perspective, the behaviour of UK MPs regarding their expenses seems small beer. Here, the papers are reporting how the current left of centre government is trying to eradicate a pervasive bribe culture. The most paradoxical story I read on this subject was when a Ghanaian businessman took two men to court who… Know More
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Members of Parliament

To most of us MPs seem to be missing links in the historical chain that connects us with primitive humans. They roar a great deal as they hunt for votes but once in parliament their calls are different. A lot more restrained, a lot more equivocal as they move into the self-enclosed world of law… Know More
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Having the heart for sex

The most clicked story on the BBC website today concerns a study comparing the emotional profiles of over two thousand female twins. The hypothesis from the study is that sex is largely governed by emotional intelligence. Apparently, a third of all women find orgasms difficult or impossible to achieve and this study suggests that the… Know More
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Boys, toys and wish fulfilment

I watched a rather mediocre film last night called Jumper. The plot suggested that through time, aberrational humans with the godly power to leap through wormholes to any point in the world they liked (fixed by a photograph from a brochure, etc) were being hunted down by religious fanatics who were protecting God’s monopoly on… Know More
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Malaria, swine flu and those cunning Chinese

I watched a fascinating programme at lunchtime today and it brought back to me the perennial debate in research between inductive and hypothetico deductive approaches to scientific discovery. Having exhausted most of a book on the topic, it is not in my mind to go over that ground here except by being as cryptic as… Know More
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Zen flesh, Zen bones, pork and the sun

Having left behind the extraordinary silent harmony of nature and nurture (see photograph) around the Buddhist temples of Kyoto and Hiroshima, I am back in Ghana where the chaos of the roads, electric sounds and utilities prevails, as always. If you asked me how I’d like to spend my last few hours of this life,… Know More
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Watchmen

I was born before Graphic Novels achieved their genre status as adult literature. But their precursors, Horror Comics, had their heyday when I was pre-teens and used to go up the village to have my hair cut at the part time barber’s. He sold everything that was unacceptable which gave him a certain consistency in… Know More
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