REVIEW: ‘The Orphan Master’s Son’, by Adam Johnson
PERHAPS THE BEST way to grasp the sad and desperate state of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is to glance at a satellite photo of Northeast Asia by night.
REVIEW: ‘The Ideal Man’, by Josh Kurlantzick
On Easter Sunday 1967, Jim Thompson, a prominent businessman and Bangkok expatriate, disappeared while on holiday in Malaysia’s Cameron Highlands. The 61-year-old American left his bungalow to take a solitary hike in the hills and never returned.
REVIEW: ‘Cambodia’s Curse’, by Joel Brinkley
In June 2010, diplomats and donors converged on a conference hall in Cambodia’s capital for a meeting with senior government officials. Seated in rows with headphones beaming in live translations, donor representatives listened to key ministers speak about the country’s progress on a series of agreed to good governance reforms.
REVIEW: ‘The Golden Triangle’, by Ko-Lin Chin
BURMA’S United Wa State Army is seen by many Western law enforcement agencies as one of the most powerful drug-trafficking organizations in the world. Since signing a cease-fire agreement with the Burmese government in 1989, the 20,000-strong UWSA has been granted control of Wa Special State—an isolated and mountainous region of Shan State in Burma’s...
REVIEW: ‘Khmers Stand Up!’ by Justin Corfield
Prior to my going to intern at the Phnom Penh Post in March, I’ve assembled a long list of Cambodia-related reading material, covering politics, history, language, anthropology and travel writing. The first cab off the rank was Khmers Stand Up! by Justin Corfield, a history of the right-wing Khmer Republic that lasted from the deposition...
REVIEW: Girl Talk
Brown Alley, January 11, 2008 Girl Talk — aka DJ Greg Gillis — has built a reputation out of recasting snippets of well-known songs in an aspic of glitchy beats and digital noise. It’s a shtick that might not hold up live were it not for the Pittsburgh native’s manic stage performances, on display last...
REVIEW: ‘The Collapse Of Globalism’, by John Ralston Saul
I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with the tenets of the anti-globalisation movement. Books like Naomi Klein’s No Logo deftly document serious socio-economic concerns, but then, when it comes to proposing solutions of their own, ride roughshod over their own arguments with an unsubtle blend of pie-in-the-sky utopianism and New Left sermonizing. Canadian philosopher John...
REVIEW: ‘Four Classic Quarterly Essays’
How are we to account for the overwhelming successes of the Liberal Party under prime minister John Howard? For a decade he has dominated Australian politics like no other leader in recent memory, using his electoral mandate to forge a new consensus on issues of national security, economic management and climate change. In frustration, some...
