Wherever you go in Latin America, politics is, well, let’s just say a little different from what a normal Westener is used to. Corruption is widespread, government is generally an inefficient hassle instead of a help, etc. In Ecuador, though, things seem particularly bad. In the last ten years, not a single president was able [...]

Will somebody explain to me, please, why it’s OK to take a Swiss army knife onto a US-bound airplane while my bottle of water has to be taken away from me because it’s potentially deadly? I understand a certain need for security but what is going on in airports at the moment is plain insanity. [...]

I now think I have to move to Sweden. Given how fast these kind of plans change for me, I might think differently soon. Still, a neither necessarily complete nor ordered list of reasons why: Sweden is a member of the European which means that I do not need to worry about work permits or [...]

I do understand the British need for safety after the bombings of the London tube. We all want to live safely and what happened in London is probably hard to imagine for somebody that has not lived through it. However, there is one thing we must not forget: if you are giving up your liberties [...]

A new Wired News story I just read reminds me of the perils of flying in the US. A particularly dangerous “feature” is the so-called no-fly list. This is a list of names who are considered so dangereous that they are not allowed to board an airplane but not dangerous enough to immediately arrest them. [...]