I haven’t been able to work for any campaign this year. Did some phone banking. And am hoping to do some election-day moniter-y stuff. Or perhaps, I will just drive people to vote. Next elections, I will vote. I don’t know if people still remember that Raed Jarrar was denied boarding on a plane because [...]
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I am a _tad_overwhelmed at the moment. But this weekend, I will post my talk from Madison. And I have some long languishing post on teaching postcolonialism. In the meantime, with no ironic hipsterness, I present a Daily Chosun Link ‘o da day: Avoiding the Stigma of Being an ‘Ajumma’. The checklist at the bottom [...]
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Today, I will not go to work. I will stay at home and finish up decorating. We will all wear our new clothes and hug our parents and grandparents. Friends will stop by all day – dressed fresh and clean. We will exchange those three-pump hugs that I can never get right – left shoulder, [...]
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Barack Obama appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press today and acknowledged that he is now considering running for Prez in 2008. Looks like Oprah’s campaigning is paying off– let’s hope she can influence elections as much as she can booksales. He’s out on the campaign trail right now, stumping for the November election and his [...]
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Seems the Microlender Laureate is not just about microlending anymore. On November 7-8 Muhammad Yunus will unveil the new Grameen Danone Food Factory with the help of none other than Headbutter Laureate Zinedine Zidane. P.S. For those of you who read things printed on pieces of paper, check out the centerfold in the September issue [...]
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Habeas Corpus, RIP 1215-2006. Habeas Corpus, friend to many, died today in Washington, DC. It was seven hundred ninety one years old. Habeas’ violent demise came after a long, robust and celebrated career as defender of the weakest members of society, during which it freelanced as a bulwark against encroachments on civil liberties. Habeas Corpus [...]
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A Huzzah! to my man Whitney Cox for defending his dissertation today. Much cel[r]ebration will be had. And, tomorrow all concerned are going to the 35th Annual South Asia Conference at Madison. I have a panel Digital Humanities for South Asia with a paper, From Diwan to Database: Digital Archives of South Asia – along [...]
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Recently, we watched Omkara – Vishal Bharadwaj’s adaptation of Othello. A few nights ago, I watched Xiaoxang Feng’s The Banquet – Hamlet set in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms of China. I could seriously geek out over the visual delights offered by both of these productions, but I will restrain myself since I have [...]
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Chicken with Plums, by Marjane Satrapi (Pantheon Books, 2006), $16.95. _____________________________________________________________ Gadzooks! Every time you turn around these days there’s a new Marjane Satrape graphic novel for sale. The graphic novel translator’s league must be burning the midnight oil at HQ in the North Pole churning out translations of our favorite French cartoonists in English, [...]
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The Nobel committee continues its rampage of making-news: Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank of Bangladesh were awarded the Peace prize. A true pioneer – his bank gives loans without collateral, relying on a system of trust and honor – he has done more to fight poverty than all those Bono jeans at Gap. As of [...]
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Best South Asia Blog.
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Ending the longest tease ever, the Nobel committee finally decided to give Pamuk the Literature prize. Woulda made more sense last year, no? We will have to wait for e.’s take but a list of his work: Cevdet Bey ve Ogullar√Ω, 1979, Sessiz Ev (The Silent House), 1984, Beyaz Kale (The White Castle), 1985, Kara [...]
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Probably the most disturbing thing about the Joan Didion article on Dick Cheney in the New York Review of Books this month is that she tries and tries, but she can’t really figure out what makes him tick. Is it ideology? No, none there, really. Is it will to power? Maybe, but that’s not really [...]
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My friend Gerry emailed: “Every so often I like to read up on what’s happening in the world of cricket. And, every so often, I’m struck by how impenetrable cricket lingo is to the uninitiated.” He then linked to this news post at BBC: Windies Destroy Tigers to qualify, with a quote: “Marlon Samuels missed [...]
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[rejected by US Weekly] They’re CRAZY about celebrities! Dictators can meet any celebrity they want. They can even kidnap them and force them to make movies for them while they eat live lobsters with silver chopsticks. But that doesn’t mean a dictator can’t be starstruck. Chairman of the National Defense Commission of North Korea, Supreme [...]
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Reports are everywhere that N. Korea has conducted a nuclear test. Remember what Bert the Turtle did.
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A 8:49 a.m. sirens sounded across Pakistan and people held a minute of silence. Can the scream of earth ripping itself apart be countered by silence? I don’t know. The loss of life and destruction of habitats is still unfathomable to me. The overwhelming sense of helplessless is still here with me. And, it appears, [...]
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Numerous reports have surfaced in Indian publications over the past 24 hours ridiculing the copy editing of General Pervez Musharraf’s recently published memoir, In the Line of Fire. Most of these reports are nearly identical, and all cite as a source a report by The News International, the English language publication of Jang. The reports [...]
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News arrives about the long-awaited [at least by me] adaptation of Charlie Wilson’s War. Who is going to play General Zia ul-Haq? Om Puri!
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The word around the cricket ground was that Abdul Qadir did not have bones in his wrists – rather greased metal balls that allowed him 360Àöof motion. And then, the same is said of Shane Warne, whose Ball of the Century inspired Dr. Andy West [winner of the Stoner prize - heh heh] to create [...]
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