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Reporter’s Diary: One Maasai’s fight against female genital mutilation

10 years ago, the sound of shouting and banging fists on the front gate of the “Safe House” would keep Agnes Pareyio awake at night. The commotion: Parents demanding the return of their girls so they could go through the traditional female Maasai rite of passage, ukeketaji, to become a woman.

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Against the Current: Diving Komodo

“Manta, Manta!” somebody shouts, and the whole boat rocks as BCDs are thrust on and weight belts collide. Those who are already ready are already in. The water is clear, but the current is strong. I rush my BCD on, go through the buddy safety checks, and try to hold myself as I realise that this is a first for me – diving with manta rays. Looking from the boat, large black silhouettes break the blue and drift below like kites. I bite the feeling, I bite the excitement and I jump. Into the blue, into Komodo, into the wild world.

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Keeping to a Culture: The Sasak People of Lombok

It’s like a mechanical bull ride. I’m tilting side to side trying to master this rented moped. The roads are uneven, I’m embarrassingly inexperienced, and the sun is setting. If it wasn’t for the warming smile of my guide and the desire to feel a part of this serene island landscape on Lombok, I’d be chasing down a taxi for a safer, more comfortable ride.

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In an Ocean Far, Far Away: Icy Moon Europa’s Ocean Could Host Life

“If you love a flower that lives on a star, it is sweet to look at the sky at night. All the stars are a-bloom with flowers . . .”

– The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The discovery of life on another planet would light up space in a way for exploration that few could ever truly imagine. Just imagine: a night’s sky with all the stars and planets alight – in this too-big, too-vast universe – hosting some form of life. And each of those forms of life developing on their own terms, perhaps unaware of the myriad other forms of life that surround them. It’s a discovery that would revolutionise late-night dates lying on car bonnets, improve remote camping trips around tiny fires, and change science as we once knew it.

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Riding through hell in Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia (SEA) may be the up and coming place to party, work or ‘find yourself’ – but these luxuries and drunken-fuelled epiphanies can sometimes be surrounded by Good Morning Vietnam-esque scenes of poverty and corruption. Currently based in one of the most advanced SEA cities, Singapore, I decided to travel to Cambodia; a third world country renowned for its ‘Jungle Atlantis’ and backdrop role in Tomb Raider, but also a country still trying to forget the disturbed memory of the Khmer Rouge regime.

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Song lyrics every gentleman should live by

It’s a tough one… compiling a list of lyrics that every gentleman will agree with as having the most meaning. After all, every man has his own set like he does his own golf clubs. Lyrics that take him back to a different period; whether that’s a love lyric from a past-time with a past-lover, a particular punk soundtrack to his coming of age story, or a Wham! moment of extreme happiness.