Southern California friends, I’d love to see you at this event. If the chance to hear from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ian Johnson doesn’t convince you, maybe this cool poster from Maritess Santiago at the UCI Humanities Collective will:
Read more on Where will you be on June 7?…
I’m a regular subscriber to Jurist, a legal news site run at the University of Pittsburgh. They write excellent explanations and backgrounders of the most interesting legal happenings around the world. This afternoon, I got news that Sri Lanka will be easing emergency regulations and reducing how long the terrorism suspects can be held with out charge. A few days ago, Sri Lanka’s president pardoned a journalist, J.S. Tissainayagam, who was arrested in 2008 under the country’s stringent anti-terrorism laws.
I wrote a piece in the Far Eastern Economic Review last year about Sri Lanka’s broken judiciary — the the emergency rules that extend executive power, violence against attorneys, and the inaccessibility of legal counsel, particularly for those from the embattled North. Much has changed on the island since the end of major conflict between the Sri Lankan Army and the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) last year, but judicial and constitutional problems still plague the country. The piece I wrote about this was a bit long [PDF] so here’s an excerpt: Read more on Detained without charge in Sri Lanka…
After years of writing about Asia and globalization, politics and conflict, I’ve taken on a new gig as the community manager and frequent blogger at ReportingonHealth.org. Certainly, there are a lot of new skills and background to pick up as I learn more about health in America, but, as it turns out, my dual interests are also not that far apart.
Read more on My Worlds Collide: Global Conflict and Public Health…
If you are looking for downtime reading, here are a few of my favorite, most enjoyable nonfiction choices from my reviews for Zócalo Public Square:
Read more on Weekend Reading…
Posted in China, Korea, world | Tagged Asia, books, China, Demick, Korea, nonfiction choices, North Korea, Peter Hessler, Zócalo |
While I am working on, well, all the different things I am working on, I am excited to be a part of two upcoming events in Southern California. One is a UCLA Extension writing seminar, “Writing in the Digital Age” on May 8. On June 7, I’ll be in conversation with Ian Johnson at UC Irvine, an event hosted by The China Beat, about his new book on the Muslim Brotherhood and his work in China.
Here’s the published blurbs about these events, but let me know if you want more information or if you have thoughts about what we should cover:
Read more on Upcoming Events…
I spent January in Indonesia, mostly in and around the urban sprawl of Jakarta. It’s a city that is in motion — things are happening there and I find myself returning to this place of concrete and boulevards again and again. The first time I was acquainted with Jakarta was in 2007 when I attended Pesta Blogger, a massive gathering of online innovators from all over Indonesia’s many islands. I went back in 2008 to work on a magazine story about urban flooding with my friend and colleague, photographer Jacqueline Koch.
Jacqueline invited me to go back once more, this time to delve into religion in Indonesia. There are so many little known facts about this dynamic place. It is the fourth most populated country in the world, and largest majority-Muslim country in the world. While it is difficult to get an accurate count, the number of Muslims in Indonesia is as many as, perhaps more than, the Muslim populations of all Arab countries combined.
We spent the month exploring the diverse religious practices of this country. Islam does not just come in the Saudi Arabian brand so ubiquitous in the American press, and a visit to Indonesia makes that fact clear almost immediately. We wanted to know what the future of religion looks like in Indonesia, and how the rest of the world might incorporate the diversity of the country into their often limited views of Islam.
There was never a dull day. Read more on A Month in Indonesia…
I’m spending most of this month and last looking over the Hudson River, from Jersey City to New York. It’s a good vantage point to be an observer of global interactions and politics. It is from here that I have read most of the books I have reviewed so far for Zócalo Public Square.
Three of those books have been about American foreign policy in the Middle East. To be sure, the three were very different in style and content, but in so many ways they all underscore the simple need for context. It is a desperate need in these days of information overload and soundbite news. While the foreign policy histories and opinions in the books that I reviewed are essential for thinking about monumental existential issues like national security, the act of consistently reading books is a reminder to take more time to think about, well, everything. Sometimes it’s best that life move at the speed of books.
Here are some excerpts and links in case you’re interested. Read more on Life at the Speed of Books…
Last week, Zócalo Public Square ran the first book review I wrote for them. The inaugural piece was on The Aid Trap: Hard Truths About Ending Poverty by R. Glenn Hubbard and William Duggan. Here’s an excerpt:
Read more on Book reviews at Zócalo Public Square…
One of the best feelings I have as a writer is when something I’ve worked on sparks a conversation I could have never even imagined. That’s why I was so thrilled to find this post at the China Beat:
Learning from Lai Changxing?
Last year, Angilee Shah wrote a review at China Beat of Oliver August’s Inside the Red Mansion. The review inspired Simon Fraser University Professor Jeremy Brown to assign the text to a class and he recently invited the book’s protaganist, Lai Changxing, to join his class for a day. Brown and one of his students provide an account of the day’s visit below…
I enjoy writing book reviews, but it never occurred to me that readers might take any action other than a trip to their local library or bookstore. It certainly never occurred to me that Lai might agree to being questioned by a classroom full of students. I only wish I could have been there. Read more on Writing is Rewarding…
