la liberté avant tout
A Students For Liberty activist carries a protest sign at the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control 7th Annual Conference of the Parties in New Delhi, India. DELHI – It’s only fitting that a conference dedicated to the eradication of smoking tobacco would be held in a city caked with smog pollution. Last…
DELHI – It’s only fitting that a conference dedicated to the eradication of smoking tobacco would be held in a city caked with smog pollution. Last week in Noida, a southeastern suburb of New Delhi, delegates from over 180 countries filed out of tour buses for the World Health Organization’s seventh Conferences of the Parties…
In a whirlwind of an episode, we cover traveling in Brazil, India, South Africa, and, ah yes, Trump! Will he drain the swamp? Will it remain clogged? Can we use a better shorthand for “racist, sexist, misogynist, islamophobe, homophobe” now? As whites, we’re not sure. Tune in for a supermoon-pack full of analysis and expat…
Fear Not Trump — We Advance Society With Ideas, Not Politics
While the burn of politics and sport may continue to persist, let every individual know that they remain free to create society as they know best. And to achieve that with their own passions for the ideas they hold dear. We don’t need a president for that. As an individual who has primarily made a…
As an individual who has primarily made a career as both a journalist and an advocate for a philosophy, I’m well acquainted with ideas and their impact. I bank on it. Ideas have always been much more powerful for than holders of ideas. Especially politicians like Hillary Clinton or now President-Elect Trump. I’ve come to…
We’re more likely to accept the dogma of Google, Apple, or Microsoft in order to satisfy our daily desire to be connected and loved by the bits, ones, and zeros. Who would have thought that the great decentralized interconnected nature of the millions of computers on the Internet would lend itself to a centralization of…
My debut fiddling with computers was about 20 years ago, in 1996. My dad bought us a Compaq Presario running DOS. My brothers and I were able to learn a few pivotal lines of code, allowing us to boot from the disk and play games like The Incredible Machine, Wolfenstein 3D, and Duke Nukem. After…
When I was a young boy, I remember my grandfather telling me stories of the great emperors and statesmen of the Prussian Empire. He had moved to Canada after the war, but his glorification of Prussia never ceased. Its soldiers fought gallantly, its academics produced reams of important work invoked even today and its statesmen…
It’s an unfortunate fact of the present that Germans must shudder at the mention of their history. Any conversation will reliably either end or begin loyal to Godwin’s law. There will be no discussion of the mature political and economic institutions which created a great civilization out of nothing for hundreds of years in central Europe….
In yet another instance of changing location, Yaël has moved to Prague, Czech Republic. He shares his experiences in Czechia and Todor is already insanely jealous. From there, it’s all about great literature, Pan-Europeanism, bureaucracy, the legacy of great authors, abortion protests in Poland, and why you should never read Paulo Coelho. And a lot of…
A joyful jaunt in Brussels. The bellows of our lungs swamped with Belgian beer. Now only a train and plane separates me and the fair streets of Vienna, where I will unite with my woman under the pillars constructed by the hands of ancient pious craftsmen. But the next day, a new partition of life…
I’m using ink-stained hands to type on this keyboard today. I’ve been writing personal Thank You letters to the greatest supporters and contributors of Students For Liberty – a new fountain pen has twisted into exhaustion. Though the ink will fade, the work of SFL shall continue to thrive. I’ve worked as a volunteer and…
Without so much as a care, my family moved to North Carolina from the French-speaking Canadian province of Québec when I was a 5-year-old lad. The reason for our move was purely economic, and it has affected our lives for the better in innumerable ways. We learned all about the quirks of southern living and…
Lutte antitabac. Le sommet de l’OMS en Inde n’accueillera pas les pays qui ont un monopole même partiel dans cette industrie. de Yaël Ossowski | L’AGEFI Dans quelques mois, l’Inde accueillera à New Delhi les plus importantes administrations de santé mondiale pour réfléchir à de nouvelles réglementations sur le tabac. Ces nouvelles directives impacteront chaque…
Yaël interviews Todor on his recent move to South Africa and they compare notes on the society, the history of race and current controversies, the beauty of its people and landscapes, how to have a good life, economic empowerment, living beyond the law. Also, you should totally go there. It’s awesome. SHOWNOTES: Wayde van Niekerk…
Today I was joined by writer and journalist Anthony Hennen for his take on living and traveling in post-communist Europe. We met in Prague years ago, and we ponder the possibility of both returning to uncover more about this fascinating place. http://anthonyhennen.com Song: “Freak” by Shane Ó Fearghail Buy his latest album ‘They Might See…
By Yaël Ossowski | Huffington Post In just over three months’ time, the world’s global health establishment will descend upon New Delhi to consider new tobacco taxes and regulations that will impact nearly every country in the world. But delegates representing dozens of countries may be banned from participating by the United Nations (UN), according…
Todor is off hunting for a place to stay in the hills of South Africa. He’ll be back next time. This week, Yaël talks to longtime friend and fellow expat, writer, and adventurer Fergus Hodgson. He’s far from his homeland of New Zealand, having lived in the U.S., Canada, and all over Latin America over…
Music video recorded with Free the People and Students For Liberty in Cleveland, Ohio, during the 2016 Republican National Convention. As Donald Trump secures the Republican nomination for president, the GOP convention feels more like a wake than a wedding. And what’s a wake without a good drinking song? THE DAY THE GOP DIED A…