Lavrenty Repin

Creative Writer

Namibia

I am a versatile writer with experience in a wide range of print media genres. I have held varying positions including investigative journalist, community reporter, entertainment journalist, music critic (column), creative writer and tourism and travel writer.

My field of interests is wide and includes social, cultural and other human interest issues, colonial history and post-colonial reality, ancient history and indigenous people's knowledge. Furthermore, I spend time studying nature, wildlife and exploring new and off-the-beaten-track places with focus on animal and environmental rights.

Below you will find just a few examples of my work; roughly ordered by date. Working full-time for Namib Independent newspaper and part-time for numerous publications I have written approximately 400 published articles, of which approximately 40 have appeared as front-page/leading news. My fiction has been published in USA, India and Sri Lanka.

For more information please don't hesitate to mail me. Thank you for stopping by!

Email: [email protected]
Website: blagaj.weebly.com

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Lavrenty Repin
Resume

Updated: April 2019

2015 (Freelance Writer)

Lavrenty Repin
04/30/2015
Travel: Jingle Jungle Kolkata

Jingle Jungle Kolkata Kolkata, until recently known by the British variant 'Calcutta', referred to by local slang as 'Kal', by an Aussie friend as 'KK' and by me, the name I coined last night: 'JJ' - Jingle Jungle. If I were to write a new article on Kolkata each day, I would give you 100...

The Gardener
12/01/2015
One Braai in India

​Cultures merge in this light-hearted piece for popular south African 'the gardener' supplement.

Life in Namibia
12/15/2015
Through the Canyon

Long feature on nature, family and hiking the world's second largest canyon (or is it?)

AA Traveller - South Africa
11/01/2013
City Sights - Windhoek

Commissioned by quarterly AA Traveller, this is arguably my most widely read piece, published across most South African countries. Light, tourist stuff.

2013 - 2014 (Investigative Journalist, Namib Independent)

Namib Independent
06/04/2014
A Crying Shame!

Exclusive, Investigative Piece: Medical Aid’s Ignore Suicide Victims, as Namibia’s Death Rate Rises to Top Ten Worldwide

Namib Independent
02/20/2014
Penguins, Pigs and Pelicans

Investigative piece on widespread animal cruelty at (an excuse of) a petting zoo.

Namib Independent
11/06/2014
Incompetence, Not Market Prices Leads to Rossing Job Cuts

Following an unexpected job cut by Rossing (Rio Tinto), Namibia’s largest uranium mine, publications across the country and worldwide exclusively cited Rossing’s official (and well-orchestrated) press conference and press release: I chose to approach an alternative angle.

Namib Independent
09/04/2013
Swakopmund Swimming Pool – An Unkept Promise

I remember in my adolescence, standing on a ledge overlooking a body of water that I knew would be my undoing, every muscle shivering and aching, the sun had already set - only the thought of hitting the hot shower at the end of the ordeal to drive me on to leap off the diving board, while my coach, relentless and unmoved, counted down.

Namib Independent
10/23/2013
Bushman for Sale

“Bushman for sale” - that was the farcical caption, accompanied by the most stereotypical photograph imaginable, posted by some delinquent would-be comedian on a Facebook group advertising the buying and selling of goods in Namibia.

Namib Independent
10/15/2014
Porn, Poaching and Passports

How ordinary Namibian’s have access to the criminal underground at the click of the mouse

2012 - 2014 (Columnist for Windhoek Observer)

Windhoek Observer
01/14/2014
Manufacturing Art

The worst disappointment a journalist or, for that matter, an artist can experience is for his or her work to be censored on economic grounds.

Observer24
06/13/2014
Time-travelling with Tucsin

I HAD no idea what I was in store for, sitting cramped in a 4x4 Toyota, as it whirled past ever-changing landscapes following an apparently endless dusty gravel road. When finally we arrived at our destination you couldn't be blamed for feeling a tad disappointed - one long narrow main street, the only street, divided a town of no more than a dozen obsolete structures.

Windhoek Observer
03/19/2014
The Legality of Art – Paolo Bozzi

For Edgar Allan Poe art was governed only by beauty - “beauty” he said “is the sole legitimate province of the poem”.

Windhoek Observer
06/07/2013
Will there be a world without music?

Out of all the countless futuristic science fiction novelists of the last couple of centuries, I have yet to hear of one who predicted that in the near future the general public would become disinterested in recreational reading.

Observer24
03/07/2013
Awestruck

WE love the way they talk. As if there is nothing stopping them from being who they are. So much confidence.Sometimes we try to talk like them, we'll utter an awkward "I'm just kicking it with my peeps" over the phone and cringe immediately in shock at what we just said.

Windhoek Observer
07/02/2014
Music Etiquette

You either have it, or you'll hear from me.

Windhoek Observer
06/19/2013
Two Schools of Thought

This is a light, easy-to-read piece touching on the art and business of modern music

Observer24
05/07/2014
No home for Namibian women

A serious column on a serious topic, that was critically acclaimed and cited in several publications.

Other stuff online