Shared a splendid cuppa with old chum Tony (Jamal) Green this afternoon. We enjoyed a wide-ranging conversation, mainly centred upon his forth-coming (finally) book on those pilgrims who undertook the journey to perform the Haj by ocean from Singapore in the early part of the twentieth century. The soft copy version of the tome looked gorgeous, and was clearly superbly researched.
We also touched on the shooting at the mosque in Christchurch. I remember hoping at the time that I wouldn't see Tony's name on the list of victims, and it turns out he was in Singapore on a flying visit at the time. Otherwise he would have been there. I think he's in some official or semi-official position as spokesperson for the mosque. He had some engrossing tales of encounters following the dreadful event. I got a faint sense of the trauma involved for the community, both Muslim and non-Muslim, there. It's on-going, needless to say - but I'll say it.
We referenced the news of the terrible shooting in El Paso in the course of our chat, and then I came home to the latest on events in Ohio. We live in strange and awful times.
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