Update: May 13

Apologies to those who came by to get an update on my travels. Spending time in front of a computer has not been a priority while I’ve been away. For the first time in years I’ve been un-tethered and it feels pretty damn go0d. I’ll add some photos when I get home in roughly two weeks.

Cheers.

***

I’m off to Thailand on Thursday and I’ll be gone until the end of May.

The best way to get in touch while I’m away is through email. You can get me at evan@evanduggan.com. Some of you can get a hold of me via Facebook. I can also be reached on Twitter. (@evanbduggan).

I’ll return phone messages when I get back.

For those interested in my travels, I’ll try to post a few entries about what I’m up to. I’ll be taking lots of photos too and will try to keep my gallery up to date.

Enjoy the playoffs Vancouverites. I’m crossing my fingers the Canucks will still be hanging around by the time I get back during the third round.

Five per cent of the world is consuming 95 per cent of the globe’s morphine supplies, leaving roughly 5 billion people vulnerable to chronic pain if and when it comes.

Take a moment and check out A World of Pain on CBS News.

It’s the latest partnership in the Pain Project, our ongoing project on an under-reported global health issue.

More on the International Reporting Program is available here.

Take some time and visit The Gastown Project. It’s multimedia storytelling at its best.

The series was produced by my colleagues Andrea Woo, Mark Yuen and Chris Parry at The Vancouver Sun.

Through videos, photos, music and vignettes, you’ll get the story behind Vancouver’s oldest neighbourhood.

Trevor Linden has been my favourite hockey player for as long as I’ve loved hockey.

But Alex Burrows in recent years has slowly earned my respect and admiration. I like his tenacity, his attitude, and his ability to score hugely important goals.

His goal in game 7 of Vancouver’s first round series against Chicago last year stands out among the rest.

On Tuesday Burrows plays his 500th game in the NHL. This, from a player who probably never should have played in the league at all.

Here’s a cool story about my new favourite player.

That we should ask our members of parliament, and ourselves.

Courtesy of The Tyee.

One of my favourite shows on television is PBS’s Frontline.

It premiered a great doc last night on Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster last March.

Nuclear Aftershocks raises several important questions about what happened in Japan, and whether the disaster should have been anticipated and prevented. It also shows how many countries, including the United States, have to decide what to do next with nuclear-generated power in light of Japan’s nuclear meltdown.

Japan appears to have taken several large steps away from nuclear power as a direct consequence of what happened, and could phase out nuclear reactors entirely. Law makers in Germany have shifted away from nuclear too, buttressed by powerful public opinion and fear.

The doc shows that–at this point–there is no environmentally sustainable alternative to nuclear energy, which can generate enough clean power to bridge the gap between sources such as wind and solar, and what is required for base energy requirements.

Germany for one is looking at using coal to bridge that gap.

The questions: are we willing to risk the consequences of future nuclear disasters? Can we afford not to?

Here’s a must read from The Tyee and Salon investigating the attack on U.S. carbon standards led by big oil and an Albertan diplomat in Washington.

It raises an important question: should Canadians be comfortable with this country’s diplomats working with big oil lobbyists to keep the U.S. addicted to oil from the Alberta oil sands?

Canadians who experience extreme pain can usually halt their agony with pain killers. That’s a reality that most of us take for granted, but in most parts of the world, it’s not an option.

Bureaucracy and the war on drugs are preventing those who need help the most from accessing highly effective narcotic pain killers, such as morphine. We traveled to India, Ukraine and Uganda to find out why.

Life in Pain is latest chapter of our work, broadcast on Global television, and available here.

The documentary report was shot and produced by a team of students, and teachers from the University of British Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism International Reporting Program (IRP). Peter W. Klein, an award-winning producer who is the director of the UBC School of Journalism and the IRP, led the project.

Check out this exceptional read in The Tyee by a friend of mine. It’s a peace of journalism that I’ve been familiar with for some time now, and I’m happy to see it unveiled for everyone to read.

It opens a telling window into life as a transgendered young person, and is a good reminder that our identity is ours to be exercised as we see fit. To hell with what anybody else thinks. The subjects, Amy and Gavin, are inspirational.

I’m looking forward to the other parts in the series.