Had to rehash the old cliche because:
joining The China Beat
I wrote my first post for The China Beat today. It was a Q&A with a political scientist, Benjamin Read, who has been studying homeowners associations in China. He put the recent protest in Shanghai in context: So I think we should guard against reading too much into this event. Howard W. French, in his […]
not chocolate, but chocolatey
These are the Chocolate Hills of Bohol in the Philippines. I visited the island over Chinese New Year. They are a spectacular sight — if I ever write fiction (doubtful), I’ll hole up in these hills to do it. When we visited, the tip of the hills were just turning a rusty brown color. I […]
Pakistan on my mind
I’ve been pretty consumed by blogging lately. I started a blog for my students, to get them more interested in reading. Not sure if it will take off or how invested the other contributers will be, but I thought I’d give it a shot. I spend a lot of time in the library here, and […]
One Night in Bangkok
Ok — so, I couldn’t help this one. I was sitting in a cafe in Bangkok, and, well, this is the song that came on the radio. But it was a cover that I can’t find on YouTube. It sounded almost like a love song — but maybe everything in Bangkok has that soft rock […]
Zouked Out
This is a little bit late in coming, but Singapore had it’s biggest party recently. It’s called ZoukOut, an all-night beach party on Sentosa island where DJs spun on four stages while party-goers alternatively danced like mad and half-passed out on the sand. It was exhausting, but fun. Some of the acts were very impressive. […]
And now I present to you…
I’ve been thinking a lot about presentations lately. Singaporean students have to give a lot of presentations. They give several in my classes, and many for their other classes as well. There’s a lot of enthusiasm here for creativity — the prime minister managed to step outside of regular speech-giving in his National Day address […]
Big caves and big protests
I took a trip to Kuala Lumpur this weekend. It was a long, eventful two-day sojourn. I left with some friends on Friday night on an overnight train — that’s my storybook beginning. It’s almost Harry Potter-esque, isn’t it? Sleeper trains are a great way to travel. When we got to the city, we went […]
so much to say…
..but between writing and grading papers, there’s very little time. Like so many bloggers, I’ll let YouTube do the talking for now. This is a clip from AlJazeera about the cyclone in Bangladesh.
Smoking
I’m just catching up with the news about the wildfires in Southern California. A friend told me that the Los Angeles Times is really covering the story well — and it’s true. I really like the “Voices from the Field” stories — I was happy to see the coverage not focused on the Malibu elite, […]