Archive for June, 2005
Party
If you know me, or are a reader of this site living in Taiwan, you are invited to a party on Monday night, July 4th. Scott and I (and maybe Zonble) will be at a tea house (they serve food and beer too) somewhere behind Sogo on Zhongxiao Dong Lu 忠孝東路. You will recognize it […]
War of the Donuts
Two things which I thought were true, but are not:
That JFK made a jelly donut of himself in Berlin.
That Orson Wells caused a panic in the tri-state area.
Live and learn.
(Via Language Hat and Crooked Timber respectively.)
{berlin, donut, jfk, Kennedy, Orson Wells, war of the worlds}
Hualian County
Here is an annotated map I’ve made of Hualian County 花蓮縣 using Google Maps which, even though it doesn’t have map information for the whole world yet, now has satellite photos of the whole world.
I’m located deep in the valley between the central mountain range (on the left) and the smaller coastal mountain range (on […]
Balance of Power
Rick Perlstein, Henry Farell, Matt Yglesias, and Kevin Drum are all asking the same thing: What is the next big idea that can help re-brand the Democratic Party as genuinely progressive, without sounding like a rehash of populism-past?
Here’s my pick: Balance of Power.
American democracy was based on a concept of “separation of powers“:
as colonies of […]
Squatter Cities
Squatter City is a blog devoted to bringing attention to scenes like this all over the world, where urban slums are being “cleared” often irrespective of human life, like the two children killed while bulldozing this shantytown in Harare in an operation that has so far displaced hundreds of thousands, if not millions.
Squatter City author, […]
Eminent Domain
In many ways Kelo v. City of New London reminds me of Bush v. Gore. In both cases the court reversed its ideological course in order to serve the interests of those in power. The concept of “takings” was useful as long as it could be used to attack the government regulatory apparatus. This, of […]
What’s happening in Kashipur? [Invited Post]
This post is by filmmaker Vinod Raja.
On the 25th May I was attacked while filming a peaceful rally by the Kue Kondhs, an Adivasi (tribal) community in the Indian state of Orrisa. They were marching against police attrocities and repression. For the past thirteen years the Kue Kondhs have been consistently opposing the plans to […]
Exuberant Goose Golub
All those Chinese speakers out there reading this blog, please help Rex pick a Chinese name.
{Chinese, names}
Vikings
Alcoa, with help from Bechtel, is building a giant dam in Iceland which will destroy some of the last protected wilderness in Europe. The whole project is to create power for a smelting plant which will create aluminum. The saddest part of the whole thing is that better recycling programs could probably make such a […]
Fire Carriage
China is seeking to privatize its rail system. Considering what a mess that has made of rail systems just about everywhere else, I can’t imagine why. This Asia Times article suggests that it won’t be easy:
As in many other areas of China’s economic reform program, it seems the easy measures have already been taken, and […]
An anthropologist and documentary filmmaker, 
