Books I read: “Somebody Else’s Century…” (Patrick Smith)
“Somebody Else’s Century/East and West in a Post-Western World” by Patrick Smith (2010)
Why did I choose this book?
I wanted to learn more about Asia, something beyond the usual news articles and television programs that only focus on politics and financial news. From such narrow reporting, it isn’t possible to have more than a vague idea about the countries and people and cultures in Asia.
I didn’t even know precisely which countries are East and why. I wanted to learn more about the distinctions between the Japanese, Chinese and Korean people.
And a blurb on the back cover of the book also sparked interest:
This thoughtful and highly original meditation on the future of Asian societies should be required reading for anyone interested in where our planet is heading. (Chalmers Johnson)
Finally, it was the credibility of the author. Patrick Smith is a journalist who has been a foreign correspondent in Asia since 1981.
Did I learn what I hoped to learn?
Yes, and much much more. The depth and detail of reporting in this book transformed my views of Asia. An unexpected reaction was the anger I felt that our traditional news media does not offer such comprehensive reporting in its daily coverage. Smith brilliantly demonstrates what a journalist can do if given the chance.
Choosing a perspective from the inside out, Smith writes about the complex reasons a defeated and humiliated Japan (post-World War II) embraced and imitated the priorities and culture of those who conquered it. He traces the historical relationship between China and Japan. He discusses the attitudes of the people in each toward each other. And Smith analyzes a crucial aspect of India and its people that makes the country and culture markedly different from China and Japan.
Most interestingly, he reviews the arbitrary line that divides East from West, questioning exactly what it is and whether it has any validity. Excerpt:
Herodotus concluded that the business of East and West was ‘imaginary.’ The line he referred to was drawn by humans. For a long time we have simply lost track of this. We have erred in thinking the divide is eternal — ever there, ever to be there, somehow (and somewhere) etched into the earth. Now we enter a time when we can see from another perspective and see the truth of things and of ourselves.
Favorite quote from the book:
“The past is made of every moment up to the one we live in, the moment we know as ‘now.’ Each speck of our past is part of what makes us who we are… We honor tradition only when we add to it. The rest is mere convention, unalive.”
Who wrote this book?
Patrick Smith is an American journalist who has written for major publications including the International Herald Tribune, The New Yorker, The Nation, Business Week, and The Economist. He is also the author of the award-winning book, “The Nippon Challenge and Japan: A Reinterpretation.”
Link of the week: Vangelis interviewed (Jan 21, 2012)
In a feature titled Vangelis: A message of hope, the Greek composer gives a rare interview to Al Jazeera. He discusses his ideas about beauty, music and culture. Click on screenshot below to listen (25 min approx).
Links you may have missed (Dec 23, 2011)
Fun stuff and good news
Il giro in bici più pericoloso del mondo (la Repubblica) – video — I wouldn’t even be brave enough to walk this.
Solar-powered boat sails around the world (Aljazeera) – video
How to draw… dragons (Guardian) – absolutely brilliant! (click on thumbnail below to see photo series)
Europe
Germany in Europe: Christmas Presents from Merkozy (Social Europe Journal)
Can Italy survive the Financial Storm? (Social Europe Journal)
Egypt
Alaa al-Aswany: ‘Overthrowing Mubarak was too good to be true’ (Independent)
Underneath (Rantings of a Sandmonkey) – very discouraged local blogger. (Saw this link on Antony Loewenstein’s blog)
Planet earth
Major victory as Russia bans trade in harp seal skins (International Fund for Animal Welfare)
Odds and Ends
The Meme that Refuses to Die: Government Debt Must Be Paid Back (Angry Bear) (Saw link on Naked Capitalism)
Some Facts About Carrier IQ (Electronic Frontier Foundation) – lots of info here
And just because she’s so beautiful – my dog Amica (photo by Tarcisio Arzuffi)
Explaining our addiction to risk: Naomi Klein
Brilliant, brave, funny and fiercely committed. In a recent talk, Naomi Klein analyzes why we as a society are addicted to risk, and why this is creating so much destruction all around us.
Click on screenshot above to see video. Link here also.
Links you may have missed (Dec 5, 2011)
Some joys
Wine Tasting May Be An Art, But There Is Science In The Swirl (Worldcrunch)
Il giro del mondo in 30 colazioni (dissapore) – photo series - breakfast anyone?
Indottrinamento al cioccolato: esegue Gianluca Franzoni di Domori (dissapore)
Some things political, economic…
Is Germany’s future still European? (Eurozine)
The curious case of German leadership (Centre For European Reform)
Jean Pisani-Ferry video interview on eurobonds (Bruegel TV)
Jacques Delors interview: Euro would still be strong if it had been built to my plan (The Telegraph) – interview with architect of the eurozone
In Translation: Ahmed al-Sawy on the elections – “This isn’t the final bout” (The Arabist)
Some of the thinkers…
Umberto Eco: ‘People are tired of simple things. They want to be challenged’ (Guardian)
‘We’re blind to our blindness. We have very little idea of how little we know. We’re not designed to’ (Independent) – Nobel Prize winner for Economics analyzes how we make decisions — I’m going to buy his book.
What does seven billion look like? (Fathom) - – graphic illustration (saw this on fastcodesign.com)
Good to know
Attempted Malvertising on KrebsOnSecurity.com (KrebsOnSecurity)
One of the heroes
A Video Message from Carlo Petrini (Slow Food) – Italian w/English subtitles – click on screenshot below to see video
Romano Prodi calls out Germany
It is a brilliant stroke by Romano Prodi in an interview yesterday with Spiegel Online International when he parries a challenge from the interviewer by asking bluntly “Is Germany better off with the euro or without it?”
The interviewer has just referred to German PM Angela Merkel’s stated opposition to eurobonds, and to Germans’ fear that it is primarily Germany that will carry the financial burden for the bonds. Excerpt:
SPIEGEL: …By now, Chancellor Angela Merkel appears to be completely isolated, with all partners exerting huge pressure on her. Will that be effective?
Prodi: That is the way politics works. But let’s be rational. Is Germany better off with the euro or without it?
SPIEGEL: With the euro.
In a later section of the interview, the subject of a “two-speed” Europe comes up. Here also, Prodi offers an interesting perspective. And he goes on to talk about a major criticism that he says he hears increasingly voiced about Europe’s power globally.
You can read the full Q&A here, which also includes some discussion of the current and past state of things in Italy.
I do wish Prodi hadn’t retired from Italian politics (and I’m not the only one).
Links you may have missed (Nov 26, 2011)
Some joys of life
Is my dog barking? (The Independent)
Born To Smile: New Evidence That Laughing And Smiling Begin In The Womb (Worldcrunch) - photo above
Some of the hard stuff
At Durban, the big emitters will no doubt fail us again on climate change (Guardian)
Why Ms Merkel will blink (Social Europe Journal)
Three examples of disaster capitalism in action (Antony Loewenstein blog)
We Speak on PBS Newshour About Why No Bank Executives Have Gone to Jail (Naked Capitalism) – Yves Smith’s Naked Capitalism blog is one of the most informative there is — she speaks at 4:20 and 10:45 on the video.
Some of the heroes
Van Jones and Democratic Party Operatives: You Do Not Represent the Occupy Movement (october2011.org)
The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy (Guardian)
Some news of Italy
Italy’s women look to more equal future after fall of Berlusconi (Guardian)
Links you may have missed (Nov 20, 2011)
Italy’s ‘lost generation’ (Aljazeera) – video
While Rome was burning: Berlusconi and the politics of Italy’s patronage (openDemocracy)
Paghiamo le picconate tedesche (Epistemes.org) – Italian only
Germany’s Central Bank against the World (Spiegel Online International)
Journalists and the European Project (Huffington Post)
“We teach life, sir” – Palestinian Rafeef Ziadah (Antony Loewenstein blog) – video
Paramilitary Policing From Seattle to Occupy Wall Street (The Nation) – call for police reform from former Seattle Chief of Police
Neutrinos still faster than light in latest version of experiment (Guardian)
From Hemingway to Twitterature: The Short and Shorter of It (Journal of Electronic Publishing, JEP) – highly recommend the section on Twitterature.
Noel Fielding: The Scribblings of a Madcap Shambleton (Guardian) – audio slide show, click on screenshot below
Links you may have missed (Nov 14, 2011)
From the Failure of Europe to Possible Growth in the Real Economy (Social Europe Journal) – an Italian view of the state of things.
Monti seeks to build new Italian government (Aljazeera) – short news video
The Eurozone Crisis and the Silence of Social Democracy (Social Europe Journal) – excerpt below:
Throughout the 20th century social democrats across Europe had won concessions at national level for workers and citizens. It was here that they forced compromises on business and secured social gains on pensions, wages, health and welfare provisions. It was a settlement that mainstream Christian Democracy accepted after World War Two. Globalisation has broken that hinge economically, while Thatcherism and neo-liberalism more generally have led the political assault. Currently, across Europe, they have turned a crisis caused by reckless financial globalisation into a crisis of government revenues and demanded a policy of austerity. The European Left has stood open-mouthed and paralysed in response.
“Così ho regalato il web al mondo” (la Repubblica) – interview published today with Tim Berners-Lee in Rome (Italian only)
Wired releases images via Creative Commons, but reopens a debate on what “noncommercial” means (Nieman Journalism Lab)
News24: Sydney papers work round the clock (editorsweblog.org) – a newspaper decides to embrace the pace of the web
Stefanie Posavec On Her Handmade Charts Of Famous Novels (Fast Company’s CoDesign) – data visualisation by hand!?
Dogs, scientists, men: Who needs the leash? (ohmidog!)
La ricetta perfetta: Carbonara (dissapore) – buon appetito! – click on screenshot below for recipe (Italian only)
Who wants to leave the Euro?
Surely I’m not the only one to take notice that the bulk of the doomsday talk these days about the imminent fall of the euro is coming either from outside Europe or from eurosceptics.
An underlying assumption of this dire talk, perhaps, may be the idea that eurozone citizens are so discontented that they are demanding return to national currencies. But where is there evidence of this? Even most Greeks, supposedly mad as hell at EU leadership, reportedly want to stay with the euro (see here, for example).
And, although it’s admittedly an anecdotal report, I can say I’ve not heard or seen either a peep or a scribble of any such San Pietro! let’s return to the lira talk here in Italy either. That is, except for the usual disgruntled voices of the northern far right who, more or less, want to exit everything including the southern half of their own country.
And then this just now in the UK Guardian‘s live blog on the eurozone crisis:
1.47pm: Almost four out of five Germans believe the 17-nation single currency will survive, according to poll for ZDF television. Some 78% of people asked said the euro would survive despite its problems while 56% felt chancellor Angela Merkel was doing a good job of managing the crisis. That’s an improvement on a similar poll in October which had her approval rating at 45%.
How much of a role does the European public play in the rise or fall of the euro? I have no idea really, given the murky fog that constitutes most financial reporting, and the politicians’ backroom political jockeying. But if eurozone voters’ support is needed to drive the currency into collapse, seems to me that’s a non-starter.
