by Emil Rem | May 16, 2024 | Analects
On a glorious summer’s day, my quintessential London isn’t the tawdry brazenness of Piccadilly, nor the arch-celebration-of-invincibility, Trafalgar Square. It lies in the environs of Green Park tube station. Across the broad boulevard of Piccadilly, overburdened with...
by Emil Rem | May 15, 2024 | Analects
Lou’s best friend once told him “You’re lucky your father was born before you.” Over decades, his family had accumulated a number of rinky-dink 12-suiters across Calgary. In his mid-twenties, with no ambition, Lou became a caretaker of one of those buildings. Lou...
by Emil Rem | Apr 29, 2024 | Analects
Lulu was Flo’s mum. Flo was my English foster mum. Attending North Town Primary School—a fifteen-minute walk from home—I dropped in every Friday afternoon, to visit Lulu from the age of five to eleven. “Tell Flo I’m at the end o’ me tether.” She would say this every...
by Emil Rem | Apr 24, 2024 | Analects
Perhaps it wasn’t my home, but Hong Kong sure felt like it. From the age of twelve, I was showered with free airline tickets by my father, an employee of East African Airways. Although rich in tickets, we were poor financially. This meant sleeping on airport floors...
by Emil Rem | Apr 10, 2024 | Analects
After emigrating to Canada forty-three years ago and being away from my Muslim community ever since, I received a call from them. ”We are trying to bridge the gap between our business community and that of Calgary’s. Would you be interested in joining our committee?”...
