Here is a challenge for the English language blogs here in Taiwan: Write something about economic inequality in Taiwan without getting sidetracked by the blue/green political sideshow. What exactly does the bottom of Taiwanese society look like? According to the 2005 Survey of Family Income and Expenditure (九四年家庭收支調查報告) published in August by the Directorate General [...]
From the Washington Post: President Bush and his aides are annoyed that people keep misinterpreting his Iraq policy as “stay the course.” A complete distortion, they say. “That is not a stay-the-course policy,” White House press secretary Tony Snow declared yesterday. Where would anyone have gotten that idea? Well, maybe from Bush. “We will stay [...]
Japan Focus has a wonderful article by Nick Cullather about the history of the phrase “back to the stone age,” as in, “We’ll bomb you back to the stone age!” (most recently attributed to Richard Armitage by Pakistan’s “President” Musharraf). The most interesting aspect of the article is the way in which the history of [...]
Inspired by my friend Ilya, and because I’m going to three conferences in the next four weeks, I thought I’d give Plazes a try. So, if you want to know where I am at any given time (or, more precisely, what city my laptop is in), just keep an eye on this map (or look [...]
I think a lot of the reason why we enjoy reading blogs so much is that what other people are reading, thinking, doing always seems more interesting than what we are doing ourselves. This Nancy comic from 1953 captures that feeling nicely: (Found here.) {Reading, Nancy, Blogs}
Via Kevin Drum, this editorial from the Johnson County Sun in Kansas explaining why they are breaking from a long tradition of endorsing Republicans in this year’s election. {kansas, republicans, democrats, election}
Over at Sepia Mutiny, Siddhartha has an excellent post on one of the most important figures in Indian history, a man whose contribution is not as well known outside of India as it should be, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. Fifty years ago, on October 14, 1956 — and a mere two months before his death [...]
Our friend filmmaker Vinod Raja (who made an earlier appearance on Keywords) has sent me this urgent petition on behalf of indigenous people in Orissa whose land is being appropriated by international mining companies. Below is the cover letter and information about where to fax the petition. The petition itself can be found here. {Orissa, [...]
Over at Political Animal, Jacob Hacker is blogging about his new book The Great Risk Shift. In a recent post he answered the question: Is increased risk just the flipside of the increased returns of our economy? Don’t we have to take risks to achieve rewards, and won’t providing security prevent that? In other words: [...]
Graduate Student Rashi Jain is running in a marathon to raise money for a program to set up Radio Schools for rural Adivasi communities in India. Please help support her cause! We are brought up to believe that every child has the right to education. Yet there are many children, especially those in the remote [...]