Adventures of Isabel

In the latest in a long string of outrageous human rights and civil liberties violations perpetrated by the Thai government, political scientist Giles Ji Ungpakorn is facing prison for lese majeste — insulting the king — in a recent article about the 2006 Thai coup.
You can read the offending paragraphs here and judge for [...]

I’ve been a bit out of the Philippines loop this past month, so I just now heard about Juana Change’s Youtube channel, which is making a huge splash in the Philippines right now (thanks Noah) — the Youtube view counts may not be all that high, but the videos have been replayed on major news [...]

Estrada: RP suffering for defying Vatican in 2001 uprising
“Claiming vindication, former president Joseph Estrada said on Monday the country has been suffering because the late Jaime Cardinal Sin did not heed “God’s voice” and, instead, backed the Edsa II People Power revolt, despite a Vatican order to stay away.” more…
I first read this story [...]

I highly recommend “The Arroyo Imbroglio in the Philippines,” political scientist (and former teacher of mine) Paul Hutchcroft’s new article in The Journal of Democracy to anyone interested in a lucid summary of a century of Philippine political history. In an impressively concise article (13 pages), Hutchcroft manages to address most of the key [...]

Don’t get me wrong — I can’t stand any of the presidential candidates. But there’s still something about this guy that takes it to another level.I’m not even all that old, and I can still remember a time when this would not have been considered acceptable political discourse.And of course, the cheering crowd is probably [...]

I just feel the need to publicly express how disturbed I am that one of the front runners for the next president of the United States is a man who does not believe in evolution.Darwin help us all!