An important new group blog has been launched. Here is a statement from one of the inaugural posts on the blog How the Other Half Lives: In this new team blog, we will step out of the air-conditioned comfort of the Metro to look at what we don’t want to look at; to confront A [...]
Last summer I wrote about an incident that took place in Orrisa when tribals protested plans to mine their sacred land. Tensions have only increased since then, resulting in this tragedy: Twelve tribal villagers in India were shot dead by police on January 2 during a demonstration against the development of the Kalinga Nagar steel [...]
Guest post by tf Much of France is fixated on the televised parliamentary hearings concerning the Outreau sexual abuse scandal, named for the town in the north of the country where the abuse, both actual and invented, was situated. Eighteen people were formally investigated for abuse of children, of whom only four proved to be [...]
I had lunch today at a terrific Turkish restaurant in Sunnyside, NY. On the menu was “Aborigines in Olive Oil.” At first I thought perhaps they had discovered Hufu, but no, it was simply aubergines. Even as I type that word on my computer, the spell checker helpfully suggests “aborigines” … The same explanation cannot, [...]
I haven’t thanked TF for his wonderful guest blogging while I was in India, because I’ve asked him to continue guest blogging over the next month, as I have some activities which will keep me otherwise occupied. (More on those when the time comes.) {guest, tf}
How to fold a shirt (click to watch video): (via Lifehacker) {folding, hacks, lifehacks, shirt}
I’ve never been tagged for one of these blogger memes before, but now that M E-L’s tagged me I have no choice but to join the borg: {four, meme}
First there was the PDB, a memo, entitled “Bin Laden determined to attack inside the U.S.” Today the Washington Post reports a dual find. An NISAC analysis delivered to the White House 48 hours before Katrina hit, along with a FEMA slide show presentation. Here’s what FEMA told the White House: The hurricane’s Category 4 [...]
In 2004 I wrote that rural poverty, rather than a rejection of communalist policies, was largely responsible for throwing the BJP out of power in the last Indian national elections. So I was not surprised, on my recent trip to India, to find that rural poverty remains a huge issue. Between 1997 and 2005, twenty-five [...]
About a year ago I blogged about coming across an online exhibit including photos of an old friend of mine, Thorne Anderson, who I hadn’t seen in a while. Unlike a lot of other reporters, they aren’t embedded – but take risks to show us the human side of war – and of Iraq. That [...]