The USA and Canada are almost magical; like Hong Kong, it was built by immigrants and refugees who arrived with nothing and faced with an uncertain future. With determination and grit, they resolved to make this a meritocracy where anyone can make it in life – or so they believed. Read more
I was fully prepared for the Guggenheim in New York City to be the same experience as the Museum of Modern Art downtown. It’s crowded, caters to the basic mass market, and is massively overhyped. Its interior is structurally similar to the Hirshhorn Museum in Washing D.C. Being a giant Read more
Delaware made assisting slave escapes illegal, so participants had to be very clever about the Underground Railroad or risk getting caught. If caught, the penalty included a year in prison, a fine of $100, and being sold into slavery—a high price. Abolitionists sometimes managed to redeem the freedom of their Read more
Delaware’s Old State House in the state capital Dover served its purpose from 1791 to 1933. The new state house is located across the street. Visiting and parking is free with guided tours available several times a day. Today, it is an education centre on the constitutional contributions of Delaware Read more
On July 1, 1776, Caesar Rodney was called on to break the tie for Delaware’s vote for independence. Delaware’s two other delegates to the Continental Congress disagreed. He rode a horse through the night from Dover to Philadelphia the following afternoon to support independence. Following the defeat of the British Read more
I didn’t have much of an incentive to visit. After all, how can an art museum in a small town like Dover in a small state like Delaware wow me? But I decided to visit anyways because admission is free for students and the museum said it was on American Read more
The State Museum of New Jersey in the state capital Trenton is free of charge and has a strange interpretation of native people. Although Native Americans are still very much alive, their history is interpreted through archeological ethnography instead of their living cultural experiences. The State Museum of New York Read more
The state capital of New Jersey was only a small town during the American Revolutionary War when General George Washington defeated the British and their mercenaries several times and lodged his troops briefly in the barracks. It is still a small, sleepy town today with the husks of 20th century Read more
For someone who used to work at UNOG, the tour is more of the same bullshit. Unfortunately, it’s the only way to get public access to a different UN office. The New York location is political with the General Assembly and Security Council as its most powerful organs. The Geneva Read more
Everyone should be able to enjoy art—focus on the word enjoy. Some art museums started banning photography in the late 2000s when smartphones started having quality cameras to boost gift shop revenue and protect delicate works from automatic flashes, but the decision has been reversed in the mid-2010s partly from Read more
The Museum of Modern Art in New York is severely overrated. Don’t go, don’t waste your time, there is better art out there available with more dignified treatment with more democratic access. Washington, D.C.’s Hirshhorn Museum is free and has a better viewing experience than MoMa, the Art Institute of Read more