Analects - Emil Rem

Two Funerals in Calgary

by Emil Rem | Feb 17, 2026 | Analects

My father died on 1 April 2012. Being an Ismaili Muslim, the community took charge of the entire ceremony at no cost. Discovering that my wife was Filipina, they kindly gave her a “cheat sheet” to memorise all the responses in Arabic for the funeral. What...

SoBe

by Emil Rem | Feb 12, 2026 | Analects

As a veteran accountant, devoted to a lifetime of combatting errant tax returns, my sincere advice to you is NEVER spend Christmas in South Beach (SoBe to the initiated), Miami, Florida. It was all a ploy to steer The Monster, my younger son, away from the back...

Dulce et Decorum Est…

by Emil Rem | Feb 5, 2026 | Analects

In an era when war was romanticized, Wilfred Owen, an Englishman and First World War soldier, became the greatest of poets by denouncing that lie. Owen described the horror he witnessed: “If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace behind the wagon we flung him...

Iced

by Emil Rem | Feb 4, 2026 | Analects

Here in Canada, the Land of Oz, we are told that our law-enforcement squads will not pursue a vehicle if doing so could endanger the life of the driver or that of the wider community. Its number plate is recorded. The car is followed at a discreet distance until the...

The Ineluctable Joy of Bookkeeping

by Emil Rem | Jan 22, 2026 | Analects

Each evening at 8 p.m., I deposit my mobile phone in the freezer and retire to bed. For the next hour, I read at least one chapter from each of five books. How do I choose them? Something that teaches me. Something that amuses me. Pulp fiction I can race through....

For Whom the bells Toll

by Emil Rem | Jan 15, 2026 | Analects

On 8 December 2025, Lai Chee-ying, also known as Jimmy Lai, spent his seventy-eighth birthday in solitary confinement, a guest of the People’s Republic of China. At the age of twelve, Lai entered Hong Kong as a stowaway from Canton. There, he had once been the scion...