Verso’s New Year’s sale means that Traces of History: Elementary Structures of Race, by Patrick Wolfe, one of my favorite books of the decade, is on sale as well. Read it in 2020!
The only question to ask of the anti-infiltration bill is whether you would support it regardless of which party was in power? I’m afraid I can’t say I would.
Have Taiwanese Universities Lived Up to Promises to Help Hongkongers?
China Sentences Wang Yi, Christian Pastor, to 9 Years in Prison
The 2010s were supposed to bring the ebook revolution. It never quite came.
Will spend New Year’s Even in the most Taiwanese way: working. I have an evening class followed by a meeting with students. But I really like my students, and I like the book we are discussing today (Red Skin, White Masks) so it isn’t a bad way to welcome in the New Year!
Don’t Be Fooled By The NY Times Correction, Bret Stephens’ Column Is Still Racist
What Witcher Gets Wrong (and Right) About Disability Narratives 《I wish she had mentioned “Raising Dion” which did much better,》
Delhi Police Is Now Using Facial Recognition Software to Screen ‘Habitual Protestors’
India citizenship law: Muslims and activists face mass arrests, beatings in police clampdown
⭐️ Fantastic piece by Quinn Slobodian and Stuart Schrader on how Charles Murray’s early counterinsurgency work in Thailand shaped who he is today.
From 2017: Meet the militant monk spreading Islamophobia in India
“Baroque” is the only way to describe online banking security in Taiwan: complex password rules, multiple passwords and PIN numbers, a separate device for reading your ATM card before making certain transactions, etc. None of it makes me feel the slightest bit secure…
I actually like Warren, even if Sanders is my first choice, but she really messed up when she backtracked on Medicare for All. Whatever the rational, it showed a real failure to understand how politics work and what had made her popular in the first place.
New book exposes exploitation, abuses by brokers: migrant groups
Yogi Adityanath - learn his name. He is using the CAA protests in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh to dismiss cases against politicians, and he is establishing martial law with drones, paramilitary forces.
Six Nights Of Hanukkah, Seven Anti-Semitic Incidents In New York City 《And another in the last hour? Let’s focus on real Anti-Semitism, and stop trying to use it as a political weapon!》
My biggest concern about bio-engineering has always been their use in maintaining agricultural monopolies, not health risks. This scares me: “Six companies are about to merge into the biggest farm-business oligopoly in history“
Pete Buttigieg once gave himself credit for McKinsey work, now says his role was minimal
I often describe Han Kuo-yu as Taiwan’s Trump, this blog post by Nathan Batto explains exactly what they share in common. (Quibble: I would use another word besides “populism,” it starts with an “f”…)