김정일 사망 —South Korean headline, 19 December 2011. “Kim Jong Il Dead” Two days ago, we learned that Kim Jong Il had died two days earlier. This morning, I was struck by the photo below of the Kims in a stark, imposing hall, looking at a scale model of a Pyongyang neighborhood. Students of the [...]
Probably not, but a controversy over mid-day meals makes it a little more complicated for Korea. Earlier this month, the president of South Korea visited the United States. Remember that? They went to a General Motors plant. They had a state dinner featuring Texas rib eye. Harold (of Harold and Kumar) sat across from Barack [...]
It’s been a while since I got anything into a newspaper. But I helped out a friend at the Asahi Shimbun last week with a little transcription and editing of an interview with Michael Sandel, which appeared in last Sunday’s edition. Sandel is a professor of political philosophy at Harvard. You may have caught his [...]
Last week, with June 4 marking the 20th anniversary of the crackdown on the student protests in Tiananmen Square, Chinese officials blocked filming around Tiananmen by physically blocking shots. Below, the experience of BBC’s Beijing correspondent. Umbrellas are one of the things I remember from Korea, Japan and China. As a boy, I think I [...]
Dwell Magazine’s October issue is out, and it includes an essay, entitled “Western Promises,” that I wrote about my reporting on the Huangbaiyu Cradle to Cradle Village project. Huangbaiyu, a small village in northeast China, set to become a leading example of the power of green design in a country that desperately needs it. The [...]
Before the fall of Saigon, there was the loss of Da Nang, a major port city and host to American military forces during the Vietnam War. As North Vietnamese forces approached the city, residents tried to evacuate. For a little more information that covers some of the technical details–fuel loss, passenger load, etc.–click on the [...]
Photojournalist Stuart Isett will be speaking at Berkeley with author Navy Phim next Monday. Isett has been documenting the lives of young Cambodian men who came to the United States as refugee children, did not officially become citizens, and now are being deported. Isett does good work; you can see some of it at his [...]
So there’s a story related to this picture. Actually, the story I’m telling is about the village where this boy lives. It’s the reason why I’ve embargoed all of my photos from China last August. Check Frontline/World tomorrow (Thursday, the last day of January) and you’ll see what I mean.
The good folks at China Digital Times have pointed us to a documentary by Chen Weijun about an experiment in democracy in Chinese grade school. It’s an amazing piece. With all the electioneering and scheming, you eventually forget that you’re watching a bunch of eight-year-olds in a (nominally) Communist country. Here’s the YouTube intro: In [...]
I’ve started to put up the Shanxi photos on my Flickr page. Will have more there and on this site in the coming weeks.
No problem. Let me know if you have any questions. 
