Politics
Responsible Criticism
Reading the reactions to Sicko in the press is an interesting exercise. Almost without exception, including papers from both the left and the right, reviewers feel compelled to adopt the tone of voice of a disapproving adult, condemning Moore for his excesses while reluctantly conceding that the film is important and that these issues need […]
SiCKO
Here is a quote from FOX News:
Filmmaker Michael Moore’s brilliant and uplifting new documentary, “Sicko,” deals with the failings of the U.S. healthcare system, both real and perceived. But this time around, the controversial documentarian seems to be letting the subject matter do the talking, and in the process shows a new maturity.
And here […]
Caging
From an interview with Greg Palast, where he argues that both the media and congress are missing the real story behind the US attorney scandal:
[Monica Goodling] was trying to tell us something important, but the dim bulbs of the U.S. press and the committee dolts wouldn’t listen. She began by accusing her bosses of perjury. […]
Illiteracy
A few weeks ago Victor Mair wrote a guest post on Language Log implying that China’s high rates of illiteracy could be cured by reforming the script, replacing difficult to learn characters with phonetic spelling. There is lots of good discussion of this topic on Language Hat, and there was a good post on the […]
Disenfranchised
The following quotes and chart were culled from Jason DeParle’s New York Review of Books article, “The American Prison Nightmare.” The issue has been covered here extensively. Here is a Google search of the Keywords archives for the word “prison.”
Black men in their early thirties are imprisoned at seven times the rate of whites in […]
Tubed
From Foreign Policy, an article which argues that the same kinds of misleading intelligence which got us into a mess in Iraq, also made a mess of North Korea:
Officials in U.S. President George W. Bush’s administration are gingerly walking back from claims that North Korea was secretly building a factory to enrich uranium for […]
Demolition
The photo shows a young girl in Maninagar preparing lunch. See my Maninagar photo set on Flickr.
Her home was bulldozed on February 8th.
It was 8th Feb. 2007. It was 12th time. Municipal Corporation people demolish Nomadic people’s huts in Maninagar Area of Ahmedabad city which going to be a Mega City on the death bodies […]
Must-Do List
Below the fold is the entire text of a NY Times editorial listing “things that need to be done to reverse the unwise and lawless policies of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.” This list only covers the most grievous assaults on civil liberties, the geneva convention, and government secrecy. A fuller list would […]
Pankaj Mishra
Anyone living in Taipei who is interested in learning more about India should try to attend Pankaj Mishra’s talk on March 17th. Here is the description for his talk:
Poor but Democratic: Democracy in India in the Age of Globalization
Many rulers like to claim democracy only comes after wealth. What about India then? Indian democracy is […]
Acronym
Worst name for a political party, ever.
A newspaper headline from last year.
{india}
An anthropologist and documentary filmmaker, 
