December 2010
42 posts
7 tags
Dec 31st
5 tags
Dec 29th
489 notes
3 tags
Dec 29th
3 tags
Dec 29th
5 tags
Dec 29th
2 tags
Dec 29th
1 tag
Dec 29th
5 tags
Dec 22nd
4 tags
Dec 20th
2 notes
5 tags
Dec 20th
502 notes
5 tags
Dec 17th
6 tags
Dec 16th
4 tags
So this really is how they write about Pakistan
Reuters: Pakistan has become the most dangerous place in the world for journalists, with at least eight killed this year. Wall Street Journal: Matthew Kaminski writes: Pakistan is becoming more like Afghanistan—only with a more advanced economy and nuclear weapons.
Dec 16th
4 tags
How to write about Africa →
Gold. In your text, treat Africa as if it were one country. It is hot and dusty with rolling grasslands and huge herds of animals and tall, thin people who are starving. Or it is hot and steamy with very short people who eat primates. Don’t get bogged down with precise descriptions. Africa is big: fifty-four countries, 900 million people who are too busy starving and dying and warring and...
Dec 16th
4 tags
How to write about Pakistan →
Pakistan is just like India, except when it’s just like Afghanistan.  and Anyway, the point is that people from all over the world have come to know and love brand Pakistan for its ability to scare the shit out of them. Whatever you write, please respect this legacy. We’re providing a service here. We’re a twenty-storey straight-down vertical-dropping roller coaster for the mind. Yes, love...
Dec 16th
5 tags
Dec 15th
9 notes
7 tags
“You’ve got to stop this war in Afghanistan.”
– Diplomat Richard Holbrooke’s final words before surgery on Saturday, December 11, to repair his torn aorta.
Dec 14th
4 notes
5 tags
Dec 14th
5 tags
How far in advance do newspapers write obituaries? →
News organizations prepare so-called “advancers” in one of three situations: The subject is so famous that the paper would be embarrassed not to have an immediate package in the event of an untimely death; the subject is old or sick; or the subject is “at risk”—i.e., he’s a drug addict or a stunt biker.
Dec 14th
5 tags
Words a Cell Can’t Hold
I had imagined being there beneath sunlight with the procession of martyrs using just the one thin bone to uphold a true conviction And yet, the heavenly void will not plate the sacrificed in gold A pack of wolves well-fed full of corpses celebrate in the warm noon air aflood with joy Faraway place I’ve exiled my life to this place without sun to flee the era of Christ’s birth I cannot face the...
Dec 13th
5 tags
Dec 13th
6 tags
Dec 13th
4 tags
Dec 13th
1,316 notes
4 tags
Dec 11th
6 tags
Dec 10th
3 notes
4 tags
“The greatness of non-violent resistance is that even as man is faced with...”
– Liu Xiaobo
Dec 10th
3 tags
Shouldn't Have Eaten →
“Regret. Share. Repeat.” Story of my life.
Dec 10th
6 tags
Dec 10th
6,387 notes
6 tags
Dec 10th
9 notes
4 tags
“A nation, ignoring its youth and children, can build all the skyscrapers it...”
– Liu Xiaobo, comparing modern China to T.S.Eliot’s The Waste Land, in his 2008 speech (released for the first time to Western media)
Dec 9th
6 tags
Dec 9th
4 tags
Dec 9th
5 tags
Veil Lifted on China's Next Top Duo: Xi Jinping &... →
Xi Jinping likes Hollywood movies; Li Keqiang thinks China’s GDP predictions are false; and other glimpses into the Chinese government as revealed by leaked diplomatic cables.
Dec 9th
2 tags
Dec 8th
3,592 notes
2 tags
“Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art — Not in lone splendour hung...”
– John Keats, “Bright Star”
Dec 8th
2 notes
3 tags
Dec 7th
231 notes
4 tags
Dec 7th
3 tags
Dec 7th
5 tags
Dec 5th
5 tags
Dec 3rd
6 notes
4 tags
Dec 3rd
5 tags
Dec 3rd