Ok, maybe not so big to you, but big to me.
After struggling with bugginess and hand-coding for years, I finally made the switch from Movable Type to WordPress. Let me know what you think and if you find any broken links. RSS feeds and permalinks should still work properly (fingers crossed).
Read more on website update: the big switch…
I went to China. It was a fantastic and eye opening trip. I took some photos and wrote a bit — will share that soon.
For now — I can’t help but echo the crowd about the Democratic National Convention. I had missed the Hillary Clinton who spoke on Tuesday, the woman who was a leader not because she’s a woman and certainly not in spite of being a woman. And Al Gore gave my second favorite speech I’ve heard him give — the first is on Ted.com. But I’m no political junkie, so I’ll comment more on what I know — online journalism.
Read more on beautiful things…
I’ve been thinking about the Olympics torch relay. It seems to be rousing deep emotions — perhaps some kind of opportunism, or maybe pent up frustrations. But one thing’s clear: Even before the Olympic Games begin, there are some serious political games going on here. Just look at the torch’s run through India and Pakistan (not to mention the way each country’s national press covered it).
A quick post — the story that came from my December trip to Jakarta with friend/colleague/photojournalist Jacqueline Koch was published a few weeks ago in the Singapore-based magazine Asian Geographic. I was pretty happy to see it actually run because, as a UCLA professor explained to me once, no seems to care much about floods in Asia anymore. The teaser on the magazine’s website is here.
<<UPDATE>> Here’s a link to a PDF of the article:Jakarta.pdf
Back in the U.S., the Princeton in Asia fellowship that got me out here to Southeast Asia in the first place has published an Asian food guide to New York that’s getting some nice reviews. I think they published one of my photos and perhaps a blurb basically drooling over the wonderful food I’ve had in Jakarta. You can buy a copy and tell me about it (I haven’t seen one yet!) from the PiA website.
In yesterday’s general election, the ruling coalition party in Malaysia lost control of Kuala Lumpur. And Penang. And Selangor, Kedah and Perak.
And I know it’s big news because I couldn’t find an English-language paper anywhere in Chinatown — all of the newstands were sold out. And last night, as election results began coming through at about 1 a.m., opposition and alternative media websites were near impossible to load. The main page of Malaysiakini and Jeff Ooi’s (now MP Jeff OOi of Penang) Screenshots blog were completely stalled, and Raja Petra Kamaruddin’s Malaysia Today was very slow. I found my hotel’s last remaining copies of today’s paper in the business center.
The Barisan Nasional has made its worst showing since Malaysia’s independence in 1957. Including Kelantan, which has been lead by the Islamic Party of Malaysia since the 90s, five states and one capital city are out of ruling coalition hands. This is the first time since 1969 that the coalition has not held a two-thirds majority in parliament. With only a simple majority, the party will no longer have as easy a time changing the constitution.
But why change now? Different media are giving a lot of reasons — the Asia Times ran a good pre-election article summarizing some of the major issues; long-time government leader Dr. Mahathir, according to Malaysiakini, can think of at least one reason for the turnaround.
There’s something thicker in the air though — the Malaysian Indian Congress, which is under the umbrella of Barisan Nasional, lost many seats in Parliament and state assemblies. It’s president, S. Samy Vellu (on his birthday), and major leaders were all dethroned. Meanwhile, a protest leader from the Hindu Rights Action Force who is currently detained under the Internal Security Act won a state assembly seat in Selangor.
Kuala Lumpur is still aflood with Barisan Nasional posters and flags and fliers – I wonder how the city will (or won’t) change as the fliers come down and new leadership comes to town.
Read more on sad posters in Kuala Lumpur…
