Religious Extremism in the Philippines

Philippines Handbook by Carl Parkes

Great post today by Torn and Frayed in Manila, about the rise of religious extremism in the Philippines, and the near complete failure of the government to take action against the religious cults which infect the country.

Philippine Religious Cults: No End in Sight

Today’s Inquirer profile of Jesus Christ Followers, a small but apparently violent cult, brings some of the wackier fringes of Philippine religious life into focus. I’d love to attend the forthcoming court hearing where six children aged 11 to 19 intend to show their “brilliance” by defending themselves. They are in custody following a pitched battle with police, who had been asked by the parents of a 16-year-old to rescue their daughter from the cult.

Wielding steel pipes, sticks, rocks and human excrement wrapped in plastic, JCF members fought policemen on Jan. 28, leaving three officers injured. Twenty-two JCF members, many of whom suffered injuries, were arrested.

I think we are going to see more and more stories like this. The declining influence of the Catholic Church, the poverty of the official education system, the absence of balikbayan parents, a corrupt political process, and a lack of moral leadership--in short, the collapsing centre of Philippine life--leave acres of space for quacks and charlatans like Emilinda Tionco, founder of Jesus Christ Followers, to tout their wares to gullible people with nothing much to lose.

The big daddy of recent cult leaders is of course Ruben Ecleo. Even a passing familiarity with his story is enough to demonstrate that the Philippines is no ordinary country. Bald, gun toting, shabu taking, harem having, and, it appears, wife murdering Ecleo was headline news in 2002. In January of that year, his wife was found inside a garbage bag in a ravine near Cebu. An autopsy showed that she had been strangled.

On the run, Ecleo holed up in Dingat, his private island off Surigao, with members of his cult. Five months later he was arrested after a Waco-like invasion left 20 cult members dead.

At the height of the standoff, a member of Ecleo's cult did some tidying up in Cebu and massacred Ecleo’s dead wife’s parents and two other members of the family. The assassin was then shot dead by the police (making it difficult to establish Ecleo's role in the multiple homicide, if any).

Astonishingly, despite the serious of the crimes of which he was accused, Ecleo was granted bail in March last year. More deaths followed. In October, one of the main prosecution lawyers in his trial was murdered. In December, a member of Ecleo’s cult was charged with her murder. More than two years after the murder of Ecleo’s wife, I can see no evidence of the case against him proceeding.

Ecleo’s dark tale is written in blood, by an author heavily influenced by Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and the film Apocalypse Now. The fact that the so-called strong republic is unable to protect its citizens from such a fantastic Kurtz-like figure and his murderous followers is testament to the Philippine state's illusory qualities; despite the president's tough statements, it appears incapable of performing even the most basic functions.

Torn and Frayed in Manila

Sweet Deal to Bangkok

Sweet Deal to Bangkok

A tour operator has just posted some fairly decent prices to Bangkok from LAX and other American cities, but be careful about hotels offered at the bottom end of the scale. I mean, did anyone bother to have a look at the Manhattan or the Ambassador? If you intend to spend your week hanging out at the infamous Nana Entertainment Plaza, then these hotels might be acceptable, but otherwise spend something extra and move up a few notches.

Bargains to Bangkok

Thais Help Thais

Thai Beauty Queen Helps Others

This is just a wonderful story, about a beauty queen in Thailand who runs a foundation to help other Thais, and has just made a substantial contribution to those devastasted by the tsunami.

Porntip: Wants to help long term

Former Miss Universe Porntip Narkhirunkanok will contribute 20 million baht from her Angels Wings Foundation International to the tsunami victims in the six Andaman coastal provinces.

The donations will go towards the construction of 50 new homes for tsunami-hit families, building new boats, schools, and orphanages for children who lost their parents in the Dec 26 tragedy.

Ms Porntip donated the first six million baht through the Royal Thai Police office yesterday for the house construction project that would be carried out by the border patrol police.

In her special interview with the Bangkok Post, Ms Porntip described the news about the killer waves as a bad dream she had never expected. "I sat glued to the television for information. My heart sank and I cried helplessly for the dead victims and those who lost their loved ones. I thought about the lives stolen, children left behind and the families torn apart," said Ms Porntip.

Since then, she had been thinking of ways to contribute to the victims for the long-term to make the greatest positive impact on their shattered lives.

Building shelters was the first thing that came to mind, as it was the most urgent and basic need of victims.

The next thing she thought of was giving them boats to get people's livelihoods in fishing communities back on track. Tomorrow , she will travel with her mother to Phuket and tambon Khao Lak in Phangnga's Takua Pa District to see what happened for herself and to determine what she can do to help the people.

She would also bring with her some food and playground equipment she bought from Bangkok for children there. "I want to give them a playground because I want something to represent my long-term support for them. It's my commitment to bring them support, joy and hope," said Ms Porntip.

Bangkok Post Link

Anarchy: Philippines

Sassy Raids the Frig

I really love the Philippines. Thousands of islands and the self-proclaimed "Wonder of Asia." They deserve the title. Superb diving, deserted pure white sand beaches, and almost limitless wonders of northern Palawan -- this is a tropical paradise, the world's friendliest people, all smiles.

But something has gone wrong.

At 5.00 a.m., my husband woke me up. Our water meter had been stolen. It had been forcibly wrenched from the main water line. That was why there was no water. Instead of flowing from the main line onto the pipe leading to the house, the water was flowing freely out on the street. My husband cut about a foot off our garden hose and connected the main line to the pipe leading to the house--a temporary solution until he could go to the subdivision developer’s office, report the theft and have a new water meter installed.

Manila News: Somebody Stole my Water Meter

Island of Bali by Covarrubias

The Wonders of Bali

Nick in Seminyak, at Bali Blog, has discovered the seminal work of mid 20th century writings and histography of Bali, and is amazed by the works and emotions of what is certainly the most curious intersection of Mexican folklore and segue into Balinese culture. Island of Bali by Miguel Covarrubias remains the great introduction to Balinese culture, and Nick will love this paean to the world's most exotic and sophisticated island.

There are many books written about Bali ranging from guidebooks, to those about home decorations and traditional dress and customs, but few stand as compelling as Island Of Bali by Miguel Covarrubias. First published in 1937, and now reprinted by Periplus in Singapore, Island of Bali provides a fascinating insight for visitors to Bali.

Read the Post

Hemlock Hong Kong on Asia

Bauhaus Ad for Clothing

Hemlock is a Hong Kong blogger known and revered for his British wit and always entertaining spin on everything having to do with Asia, and any Asiaphobe with sense reads his weekly update. Do Bookmark his site.

The Filipino elves arrive while I am still in the shower, eager to transform my corner of Perpetual Opulence mansions from mild post-weekend disarray to sparkling wholesome order. After I dress and emerge, I see they have brought two mysterious companions with them. One is the Virgin Mary who glows in the dark and whose eyes flash when she is plugged in. She has been here before. The other is a mutant, silken-haired, alien life form, some eight inches tall, from the planet Zarg. It sits in the kitchen, eyeing me malevolently while I eat my banana and yoghurt and check my email.

I am bombarded with complaints from expat academics past and present, incensed at my callous treatment of their fallen comrades. Apparently, the insanity they exhibit in their writings is a result of their torment at the hands of bosses and colleagues, not the cause. This puts a new slant on this Uriel character’s 93-chapter output. Had he written two more, he would have matched Martin Luther – whose revolt against authority was considered the act of a madman, and whose persecution by the evil Catholics led to excommunication. And how did Luther publish his 95 theses?

By nailing them to the door in the church in… Wittenberg. Cosmic or what? Turning to the newspaper, I read that George W Bush admitted using marijuana in conversations taped by a man called Wead. Or did he admit to using weed in conversations taped by a man called Marijuana? It is too early in the morning.

Hemlock on Asia

WorldHum Gets Emotional

WorldHum Changes Everything

I don't really know the folks at WorldHum, but have long admired their allegiance to superior travel writing and their quest to promote great travel websites, including the blogs of my friends such as Rolf Potts, Jen Leo, Nick at Bali Blog, and others supported by the efforts of Boots N All. WorldHum consistently finds the freshest travel news and should be included in your RSS Bloglines subscription, but if not, Jim Benning has just posted a message about hope and grief, sadness and remembrance.

R.I.P. ULI DERICKSON

It’s not often that a newspaper’s obituaries page takes notice of the death of a flight attendant, but Uli Derickson had one extraordinary journey aboard a TWA flight that sealed her place in history. In 1985, Derickson was among the crew flying from Athens to Rome on Flight 847 when two Lebanese men hijacked the plane, leading all on board on a terror-filled journey across the Middle East.

Through it all, Derickson worked to protect the passengers, shouting “Enough” until the hijackers stopped beating one man, and finding ways to protect the identity of Jewish passengers. Astonishingly, according to Jon Thurber’s excellent obituary in the Los Angeles Times, Derickson was targeted for her efforts long after the hijacking. “She returned to her New Jersey home with her husband, Russell, a retired TWA pilot, and her son, Matthew,” the article states.

“But unfounded reports, including some in the mainstream news media, that she had given the hijackers names of Jewish passengers on the flight brought threats from extremist groups. When the truth about her efforts to shield Jewish passengers was verified, she received threats from others. The family relocated to Arizona.”

In the late-1980s, Lindsay Wagner played Derickson in a TV movie about the ordeal, "The Taking of Flight 847: The Uli Derickson Story." Derickson had been fighting cancer. She died last Friday at the age of 60.

Jim Benning at WorldHum Remembers

Big Laughs in China

Chinese Consulate Website

OK, let's say you are China and want to put up a website to tell the world about your country and provide visa services. But you're short on budget, and can't afford to hire a native English speaker to look at your site. Hey! How many mistakes can you spot?

China Website

Henry Blodget Goes to China

China the Future?

Henry Blodget, former stock market guy (Yes, I have a Series 7, thank you Dean Witter), now writes for Slate, and his ongoing series about China is just about the best writing you will find in cyberworld.

Every paragraph starts with a bang. Bored? Just move on.

This man can write.

Fear and Loathing at the Chinese Consulate
By Henry Blodget
Feb. 24, 2005

This was administrative week—a welcome relief, given the bruising I took last week for suggesting that the migration of low-end manufacturing jobs to China was not only inevitable, but, in many ways, good. This week I studied quietly, bought my plane tickets, and applied for a visa.

Even these activities, it turned out, led to an embarrassing confrontation with my ignorance. First, I wasn't sure whether I even needed a visa—no country I've visited in the last decade has required one. (I do.) Second, I wasn't sure what else I'd need. Slate readers have taught me that China is essentially two countries, one First World, one Third World, the equivalent of Frankfurt plopped into Guatemala. This observation, combined with a recent New York Times article about an epidemic of "snail fever" (aka schistosomiasis) made me wonder whether I had to get shots.

Then there was the transportation question. I had this romantic idea that I'd take the train from Shanghai to Beijing—me and my business suit in a car full of farmers and chickens. Then, I learned from the Internet that the trip would take some 13 hours, too long for my cover-China-in-two-weeks itinerary. So I called a travel agent and opted for air—Dragon Air. Despite my decade as a Wall Street road warrior, I've never been big on jet travel, even First World jet travel, and Third World jet travel is another thing altogether. The travel agent hadn't heard of Dragon Air, either, which didn't set me at ease. His Sinologist colleague assured him (and me) that it was fine, but I couldn't shake the image of Cultural Revolution-era Aeroflots and Communist maintenance practices.

Henry Blodget Goes to China

Korea. Sex. English Language Teachers

English Teacher in Korea Loves Students



Jenna Jameson Sells IRiver Music Players in Korea



North Korea Drops the Bomb

Sex? In Korea? Apparently a few English teachers in Seoul have been doing the thing with their students, and having some parties around town, and the Korean press is up in arms. White guys having sex with Korean maidens? Save our virgins! Details at the expertise of Marmot's Hole.

Read the Post at Marmot's Hole

Prime Minister Malaysia Website

Prime Minister of Malaysia Website

Let's imagine that you are the prime minister of a fairly important nation in Southeast Asia, and you have an official website to spread your wisdom around the world, and your webmasters make a complete fool of you and your nation. Wonder what you would do? Jeff Ooi, as always, has the details.

The fact is, the website is half-baked. The English and Arabic versions are not ready but the navigation buttons are there, pointing to inactive, dead links.

Even if you go to the Bahasa Melayu version, the flashpage - which runs on Macromedia Flash - does not function properly on Firefox to give you multimedia audio audio.

Click on other pages, and you are greeted with "Under Construction".

Jeff Ooi Screenshots on the Website of the Prime Minister of Malaysia

Singapore and Freedom of the Press

Nick Leeson Loved Boat Quay

What country in the world has the world's most repressive laws against freedom of the press? Communist China? Putin's Russia? South Africa? No, it's Singapore, bastion of free enterprise and home to the world's most repressed media, especially now that the Straits Times will withdraw their website and open it only to paying customers. This is old news, but worth repeating.

1. STATE CONTROL OF THE MEDIA IN SINGAPORE IS SO COMPLETE that few dare challenge the system and there is no longer much need for the ruling party to arrest or harass journalists. Even foreign correspondents have learned to be cautious when reporting on Singapore, since the government has frequently hauled the international press into court to face lengthy and expensive libel suits.

2. The ruling People's Action Party (PAP) controls most local media, through its close ties with Singapore Press Holdings, whose newspaper monopoly ended only in 2000, and through state ownership of most broadcast media. Strict press licensing requirements make it impossible for independent newspapers to emerge, and journalists have been taught to think of themselves not as critics but as partners of the state in "nation-building."

3. Satellite television dishes are banned for all but a handful of users, and cable television is a state monopoly. While the Internet has been censored onlyhalf-heartedly, the government has been aggressive in promoting its own sites to disseminate information about state policies and procedures. "Alternative New Groups" like Singapore Review, The Optical etc are often victimised and subject to harassment and persecution under local laws.

4. In response to calls for more diverse media voices in the country, a handful of new free tabloid newspapers were launched (TODAY, STREATS, NEWPAPER to name a few). These publications, which look but do not read like free alternative newspapers in the United,States, were are controlled by corporations affiliated with the government. Singapore Press Holdings (in which Temasek Holdings retains a stake) owns and manages all the local newspapers circulated in Singapore (including the chinese and tamil editions).

5. In an apparent effort to create the illusion of free competition, Singapore
Press Holdings received permission to run TV and radio stations. This was hardly a risky move for the government, since the company's chief executive used to head the Singapore internal security agency, and its board chairman was an ex-cabinet minister and close confidant of former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew. Meanwhile, the state-owned broadcasting giant Media Corporation of Singapore, was awarded a license to publish one of the free newspapers, Today. In August, The Straits Times, Singapore's leading daily, described this shuffling of a stacked deck as a "newspaper war."

6. Previously, public speaking without a license was banned everywhere in the country. In September, authorities allowed a Hyde Park-style Speaker's Corner to open in a local park. There seemed to be little public interest in the handful of eager speakers at the new venue, however. In fact, it is a revelation that it is still illegal to assemble in groups of more then 5 in apublic place without a permit.

7. Singapore is a country which has adoted the FORM of a written constitution, but has not applied the actual spirit of a the written constitution into daily practise in the course of state administration. Mere lip service is given to public policies which are meant to showcase to the world the existence of a free press/free speech social-political environment in Singapore.

8. Singapore also has the dubious honour of being on the black list of several free-speech/free press organisations like CPJ (Committee To Protect Journalists) as well as Amnesty International. Please feel free to visit their websites below.

http://www.cpj.org/index.html

http://www.amnesty.org/

9. Lee Kuan Yew, the architect of what many critics have called Singapore's "nanny state," remained the object of fawning praise in local media. In a volume of memoirs published in October, Lee argued that the authoritarian system he created, which closed independent newspapers and jailed some journalists after independence in 1959, was more responsive to the needs of his people than the flawed democracies in other Asian countries.

"I said I did not accept that a newspaper owner had the right to print whatever he liked," Lee wrote of a 1971 appearance at the International Press Institute's annual assembly in Helsinki. "Unlike Singapore's ministers, he and his journalists were not elected. My final words to the conference were: 'Freedom of the press, freedom of the news media, must be subordinated to the overriding needs of Singapore, and to the primacy of purpose of an elected government.'"

In 2003, this unfortunate view continued to guide Singapore's media
policy. Strict censorship and a tame press continue to characterize the press freedom climate in the city-state, which promulgated regulations designed to keep a range of prohibited information from reaching its citizens by the Internet. Using the threat of costly lawsuits, harsh national security legislation, and decades of indoctrination, Singapore's ruling People's Action Party, which has been in power since independence in 1959, has fashioned a predictably bland media culture.

Singapore Press Holdings Ltd., a private corporation with close ties to the government, controls all general-circulation newspapers. The government-linked Singapore International Media PTE Ltd. has a virtual monopoly on broadcasting. Satellite dishes are banned with few exceptions. The government has successfully prosecuted numerous domestic and foreign journalists in the past, and as a result of previous run-ins with the government, many foreign publications have their circulation strictly controlled by the government. Such is the case with The Asian Wall Street Journal, the Far Eastern Economic Review, and Asia Week, the three leading regional news publications.

The Internet regulations allow unhindered access for commercial users while preventing private users from having access to a wide range of sites. The Singapore Broadcasting Authority (SBA) requires Internet service providers to block sites the government identifies as taboo because of their political or sexual content. The SBA also requires political and religious societies to register their Singapore-based websites. Singapore's government has set a goal of becoming a regional center for both on-line commerce and Internet-control technology. The government considers its Internet controls to be a success and an example to other nations in the region, but the tightly regulated environment for the press at all levels in Singapore is anathema to the promise of unhindered information flow promised by the Internet.

Perhaps you may care to shed further light on the above. My final word is that the government's stand on free press issues (which is echoed by your respective papers) is reflected by the fact that this letter will never see publication in any SPH paper in its original unedited form.

Yours faithfully

Mellanie Hewlitt
Editor
Singapore Review

Singapore and Freedom of the Press

Eight Megs at Bargain Prices

Olympus Evolt E300

Great article today in the New York Times about the rise of mid-priced eight megapixel cameras, which bridge the gap between those inexpensive consumer digitals and the very expensive professional models that cost $1400-2500. Mid-priced digitals cost $450-600 and come with wonderful 8-10x zoom and other features long standard in the analog world.

Nikon gets slammed in the review, but I'm happy to report that my old favorite, Olympus, wins the contest with its simple, direct approach to digital photography that puts the photographer back in control rather than leaving the craft to high-tech gadgetry.

In life's final exam, the section intended to gauge your maturity and wisdom will probably look like this. "Mark each statement true or false: More money always makes you happier. A larger strawberry always tastes better. More megahertz always means a faster computer."

Too easy? All right, then, answer this: Why are so many people convinced that more megapixels means a better digital camera?

Within three years, camera companies rolled out four-megapixel cameras, then five, then six and seven. Now, if you can believe it, eight-megapixel consumer cameras are available for under $600.

Let's get one thing straight: the number of megapixels is a measure of how many dots make up a digital photo, not its quality. An eight-megapixel photo can look just as bad as a three-megapixel one - just much, much bigger.

The problem with this digicam arms race is that more megapixels mean bigger files. You need a much bigger memory card, you'll pay more for the camera (for its faster processing circuitry) and you'll have to wait a lot longer for those giant files to download to your computer. Once there, they also take longer to transfer, open and edit.

Read the Rest

The Final Moments

The Seattle Times



The Wave Approaches



And Crashes



The Final Photo



John and Jackie Knill

An amazing story of tragedy and discovery is told today at The Seattle Times, about a missionary volunteer at Khao Lak who finds an abandoned digital camera in the tsunami wreckage and downloads the chilling images back in his hotel room.

Seattle Times
Couple's final photos
"An Echo from the Grave"
By Lornet Turnbull
Feb 24, 2005

It was like a puzzle — these images from a broken digital camera washed up on a deserted beach in Thailand.

Christian Pilet of North Bend could not have known the power of his discovery: the last photos taken by a couple who lost their lives in the Dec. 26 tsunami and the closure the photo diary would bring to a grieving family half a world away in British Columbia.

Taken in sequence, the photographs tell a gripping story: John and Jackie Knill arriving at a Khao Lak resort, happily enjoying Christmas dinner with a large group of friends and then basking in a brilliant tropical sunset.

8:26 a.m. Tourists stroll unaware of an ominous dark line — the tsunami — rolling toward them from the horizon.

The next day, the couple is seen hugging, smiling — radiant on the beach. Then the story turns ominous: people stroll the beach under a clear blue sky, apparently oblivious to the large wave that has formed a line across the horizon.

The wave gets closer, its power more evident as it kicks up sand and mud and finally crashes onto the beach.

"We were stunned — just out of the blue, an echo from the grave," Pilet said. "What we saw in these pictures were the last five minutes of these people's lives."

Read the Rest

The Final Horror. A Short Slide Show by the BBC

Khao Lak Website

Khao Lak Website

German travelers to Thailand often bring along the German language guide by Stefan Loose and Richard Doring, who have been producing Thailand Handbuch for almost 20 years. Doring moved to Khao Lak about a decade ago to operate his homestyle beach resort known as Dream Beach Villas. His small collection of chalets were destroyed in the tsunami, but he intends to rebuild and hopes for another successful season next winter. In the meantime, he is looking for some volunteer help and has organized the remaining bungalow owners into a loose collective to help each other get their voices heard with the central government in Bangkok.

Khao Lak Website by Richard Doring

Google Maps

Google Maps Finds Friskodude

Just type in your home address, the address of your ex-wife, your current lover, and voila! Google has the map!

Google Maps

Singapore Straits Times Newspaper

Old Sign Posted at Saxophone Club on Orchard Road

I just received this curious email from the good folks at the highly repressed, highly censored, totally boring Singapore Straits Times, that they now want me to pay them big bucks to read their censored and government controlled rag. Even the dictators in Burma don't have the nerve to want money for their propaganda. Why do the media slaves in Singapore think anyone will actually pay to read their drivel?

Dear STi Reader,

You are getting this email from the ST Interactive team as you are among the more than 280,000 of our registered users. We thank you for your interest in the website and would like to inform you about a major change coming to STI in March: After 10 years of giving ST news reports out for free online, STI will begin charging readers to access it.

A subscription will cost S$72 for six months (S$12 a month), or S$120 for a year (S$10 a month). A one-month subscription will cost S$15. Why are we doing this?

Dear Publishers of Straits Times: Take your government controlled propaganda rag sheet and peddle it to your confined customers in your country. Everybody needs something to line their birdcage.

Don't believe that this strategy by the Straits Times is doomed to failure? Just look at the Wall Street Journal, which has long limited internet access to only paid subscribers. Even the WSJ has failed, as shown today in an article at Wired:

Nevertheless, the Journal faces an intractable problem. Because you have to subscribe to access both current news articles and the archive, the Journal is leaving only a faint footprint in cyberspace. As with The New York Times, which insists that readers register to view news and pay $3 per article in the archive, the Journal barely shows up on Google or any other search engine. I googled "Enron" -- an issue the Journal covered exhaustively, and which two of its reporters even wrote a book about -- and not one article appeared within the first 25 pages (250 results.)

Then I rigged the test by plugging in "Wall Street Journal" and "Enron" and still struck out (although I did pull up a couple of Journal stories specially edited for high school classes.) If you can input the name of your publication into a search engine and not come up with any stories, you must be digitally tone-deaf.

And in the rare event a Wall Street Journal article does pop up and you click on the link, you will likely encounter a message that informs you, "The page you requested is available only to subscribers." To access the article would cost you $79 a year, or $7 a month ($39 a year if you also subscribe to the print edition).

Since most people refuse to pay for WSJ stories, most bloggers are reluctant to link to them. It also has an impact on anyone who uses the web for research -- and there are a lot of us. As importantly, the next generation of readers is growing up by accessing news over the internet, and one place they are not surfing to is WSJ.com. With their habits being formed now, there is little chance the Journal will become part of their lives, either now or in the future.

Read the Wired Article

Bob Bone Remembers Hunter

Bob Bone and Hunter, Rio, 1963



Hunter, Bob Bone, Sean Penn, Honolulu 2001

Bob Bone is a newspaper journalist, magazine columnist, and guidebook author who lives in Hawaii and is a fellow member of the Society of American Travel Writers. He's also an old friend of Hunter S. Thompson, and today he posted a most heartfelt and revealing profile of his early days with Hunter, which I have posted here with his permission.

The writer is the Faust of modern society, the only surviving individualist in a mass age. To his orthodox contemporaries he seems a semi-madman. -- Boris Pasternak

I was shocked -- but not surprised -- to hear of Hunter's death. It was completely consistent with his approach to life.

During the 1960s, when Thompson and I were first trying to make an indelible mark on the world at large, if I had said to him, "Hunter, you're going to kill yourself some day," I'll bet he would have puffed on his pipe, nodded and thoughtfully agreed that it was indeed not outside the realm of possibility.

When we first met, in 1958 while we were on the staff of the Middletown, (N.Y.) Daily Record (now the Times-Herald Record), Hunter revered and frequently quoted Ernest Hemingway. If his life were to have any parallels to that of the great author, he would certainly have approved. Hemingway, of course, was obsessed with death and subsequently took his own life with a gun in 1961.

But Hunter, who pretended much of the time to be angry or incensed at the effronteries and absurdities with which he was frequently confronted, was also fun-loving in his own way. He set up amusing situations -- usually ones which embarrassed those of lesser intellect, but fascinated and delighted others. He often related stories of his conflicts with his superiors in the air force. One later account, which involved himself and a friend getting in a fight in a New York bar, had as its central theme the fact that they both just happened to be carrying bags of flour or cement (I forget which). Of course the bags eventually broke causing havoc on the premises, at the same time that it obscured their escape.

In those days of his relative obscurity, he was often a character of apparent annoyance, but enjoyable enough to be suffered by his friends in spite of it. He was usually broke, but he carried printed personalized checks from an expired bank account in his pocket. If you asked him if could now pay back the 20 bucks you lent him last week, he would reply with a sardonic smile and say, "Of course. I can give you a check!"

I always turned down those worthless checks, but I wish now I had not.

Hunter didn't last long at the Middletown Record. He was already skating on thin ice since he refused to wear shoes while in the news room. But one day, he had an argument with a candy machine. When Hunter lost his two nickels without receiving his due reward, he beat the machine savagely until it disgorged all of its contents. Hunter strolled away carrying only the candy bar that he had paid for. But management soon discovered that everyone in the newsroom and the back shop all were eating candy bars, and so Hunter was discharged. It was certainly just the outcome that he wanted.

Hunter followed me to Puerto Rico. I worked on the first staff of the San Juan Star, a new English-language daily. Hunter worked briefly for an ill-fated local sports magazine. The Star knew better than to hire him, but its managing editor, William Kennedy, and Hunter began a life-long friendship. Kennedy later went on to fame as the author of Ironweed and other novels. In Puerto Rico, Hunter lived in a small community which he claimed was the haunt of witch doctors and other practitioners of voodoo. There he wrote his first novel, the Rum Diary, which ironically was not published until 1998 -- long after his later successes.

The early-60s found us both in Manhattan. Many of our small group of wannabes were at various times resident of a single modest tenement apartment in Greenwich Village. The official tenant was Sandy Conklin, who later became Hunter's first wife. We made beer in the kitchen, and most of us tried to write, with greater or lesser degrees of success. I still have tape recordings of some of our conversations. In 1961, Hunter left for South America. His letters to me contained words and terms which are now famous -- his "gonzo" approach to journalism and to life.

In 1962, I left my job at Popular Photography to edit a small business magazine in Brazil. A few months later, Hunter showed up on Copacabana Beach. I spotted him while riding in a convertible with a friend, and we stopped to let him in the car. He had a drunk monkey in his jacket pocket. His explanation was that he met someone in a bar who would buy him a drink only if he could buy the monkey a drink at the same time. The monkey eventually committed suicide, leaping into the air from the balcony of my tenth-floor apartment -- we presumed a victim of the DTs.

Back in his hotel room Hunter also had a coatamundi, a small furry animal that he said he had rescued from some who were mistreating it in Bolivia. The coatimundi distinguished itself by eventually becoming toilet trained. It also liked to play with soap, thus apparently washing its hands. Hunter named it "Ace."

We had several adventures together in Brazil before we both left within a few months of each other in 1963, Hunter to California and I back to the same traditional Village apartment in New York, and I began working for the New York Post and then for Time-Life. We had considerable correspondence during that period, and occasional meetings on both the West and East coasts. We sought advice from each other on the crises that young men have, but I suppose we seldom followed any of our words of wisdom. I still have many of these letters, whose acerbic terminology presaged those of his later public persona. I even have a Hunter Thompson cartoon which he drew. It's still pinned on the wall above my computer in Hawaii. Not many knew that Hunter could draw a little, too.

After Hunter's first major literary success, his saga on the Hells Angels motorcycle gang, we seldom saw each other again. I married, had a child, and moved to Spain. He promised to follow me, but never did. Hunter married Sandy, and he also had a child, and he moved to Woody Creek, Colorado. He began moving in circles vastly different than my own, although we never completely lost touch. My family and I moved here to Hawaii in 1971, where I began writing a series of travel guidebooks. But if my phone rang in the middle of the night over the past 34 years, it was most likely Hunter.

Every now and then, a mutual acquaintance would mention my name to Hunter. He almost invariably mumbled something like, "Ah, yes. Bone. A good man, Bone." Actually, he regarded me as somewhat intellectually challenged in comparison to himself, and I'm sure he was right.

We last met in person when he came in 2001 to cover the Honolulu Marathon for ESPN.com. It was not entirely a satisfactory meeting. He seemed not much more than a shell of the vigorous and vital friend that I knew nearly a half-century ago. Hunter's body had been taking a beating from his lifestyle for a long time, and I asked him if he realized that he could hardly sit down without slightly rocking back and forth for several minutes afterward. Nevertheless, I felt encouraged by the fact that he still seemed to be hanging in there in spite of it all.

I was never one of Hunter's legions of fans, but I was proud to be one of his good friends, blessed with shared and very fond memories of some of the best days of our lives. I will miss him and his 3 a.m. phone calls.

Robert Bone Travel Writer

Oakland Mayor and Former Governor Jerry Brown on Hunter with Comments

Yet Another Cynical Travel Writer

Marcos Bust near Baguio

Some very funny and very cynical travel writing has been posted by a freelance writer in London, who has spent a great deal of time in Southeast Asia, wandering from the Philippines to Cambodia to New Guinea. By comparison, Paul Theroux seems like a ray of loving sunshine.

Tour de farce.

Welcome to my world of self-indulgent drivel. Yes, that's right - it's another screed of twaddle written by someone who spent a year twitting around the world, all the time imagining that they're doing something clever and original. Still, for all the quotidian wonderment, there's the odd morsel worth savouring. Hanging with the penis gourd men of Papua, crunching crispy spiders in Cambodia, and enjoying big jars in Laos and great heads on Easter Island. Nonetheless as soon becomes evident, going to interesting places doesn't actually make one interesting. Thus, much of this is the literary equivalent of sipping a day old cup of milky tea.

Rhymer Travels Around Asia and the World.....with Attitude

Hunter S. Thompson Remembered

Hunter S. Thompson

I've been trying to get Hunter out of my mind, and resist the urge to open up Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas just to re-experience the joys and tragedies of what will now be called one of the great American classics. Try to forget, and then Torn and Frayed in Manila posts an astounding memorial to the man from Woody Creek:

Thompson wasn’t just a “druggy writer” though -- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is in the great American tradition of literary journeys. Thompson may have moved the destination from the orange fields of California to a drugged frenzy at a police convention in Vegas, but there is plenty in his work that ties him to Steinbeck, as well of course to Kerouac, one of his major influences. At his best Thompson was a great stylist, often imitated but seldom bettered.

Thompson’s book on the 1972 election, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, is another great work – a chaotic but astute dissection of a country in crisis. The scene where Nixon’s handlers somewhat arbitrarily select Rolling Stone’s man to accompany the candidate on a drive to Washington is one of the highlights (they talk about American football the whole way--“whatever else you might say about Nixon—and there is serious doubt in my mind that he could pass for human—he is a goddam stone fanatic on every aspect of pro ball”).

I also liked Hell’s Angels. The claims of journalists like Thompson and Wolfe that their subjective experience is superior to the relentless striving for objectivity of “traditional” journalism were a bit dubious, but Thompson’s sojourn with the Angels resulted in an essential and revealing piece of investigative journalism that really did deserve the overworked description “cutting edge”. Although Thompson was criticized for presenting too sympathetic a picture of the Angels, his description of the muddled logic behind their violent lifestyles was fair. Just condemning these people is not enough -- unless you make some attempt to get close enough to smell ‘em, as Thompson did, you are just dealing in cardboard imagery.

Torn and Frayed Remembers Hunter S. Thompson

The Bottom of the Sea

Manila Collapse

Somebody, please send me something positive about the Philippines. This is getting really depressing, all the bad news about the economy, corruption, lax government, Islamic terrorists in Sulu and Makati, deepening poverty, more sin taxes, dead coral reefs, actors as politicans........it gets too much.

Sassy covers all the gory details and it's the best blog ever from the Philippines, a country that after WWII was considered the shining light of Asia and second only to Japan for economic and political prosperity.

A comment posted at Sassy Lawyer in the Philippines:

bugsybee commented on 02-23-05 at 12:36 AM :

Actually Bayi, there are two sides here. You're right, the government encourages Filipinos to go - our overseas worker are touted to be our "best export product" and the dollars they send back feed our economy.

But if you are in the province, like I am, people don't care about government policies. All they know is that they must leave. If they stay, everybody gets hungry. The thinking is like this: we're all in a sinking boat. If nobody leaves (to eventually send back dollars), nobody's gonna be saved - we'll all just sink to the bottom of the sea.

Read the Post and Comments

Steven McDermott Raises Hell

Sarong Party Girl?

Steven McDermott now lives in Scotland, but in a previous life he lived in Singapore where he was a lecturer at a university, while maintaining a blog which was surprisingly critical of the Lion City. I always expected him to be rounded up like a caged animal and sent away to solitary confinement on Sentosa, but he managed to escape and now continues his questioning of the Singapore republic.

His blog, just six months ago, was largely ignored by the public, but after his move to Scotland and his greater freedom to make political commentary, his visitors and their comments have soared. Today, Steven talks about the rise of Singaporean females versus their male counterparts, but the real juice is in the Comments. Great stuff.

A comment:

I tend to side with 2vamp and argue that it takes two to cause the breakdown of a relationship. Men seem to have been left in the dust. The old traditional values no longer apply to the contemporary setting and structure of male-female relationships. It is no longer a question of male dominating the female, something a lot of men don't see, but a partnership between two equals. Requiring negotiation and open communication. Women have taken on their half of the 'goal orientated' breadwinner role', the men need to take on their half of the 'emotional care-giver role'

Steven McDermott and His Blog at Singabloodypore

Singapore Bloggers Help Iranian Bloggers

Singapore Blogger IZ Reloaded

I'm often critical of the Singapore government (search "Singapore" in this blog), but I'm also happy to report on Singaporeans who are making a difference in the world, such as the individuals who have gone to Sumatra to aid in the reconstruction of the devastated province. Today, Iz Reloaded, a blogger in Singapore, has publicized the need for all bloggers to protect freedom of speech.........in........get this.....Iran.

Iran.

Lately, we have been reading about bloggers who have been made jobless because they blogged about their jobs. In Iran, blogging may put you in jail. A little extreme? Yes.

Free Mojtaba and Arash Day is a day set up by the Committee to Protect Bloggers to create awareness for two Iranian bloggers who are imprisoned in their country. Read the BBC news report here. I had a chance to speak to Curt Hopkins, the Director of the Committee to Protect Bloggers earlier this morning.

The Committee to Protect Bloggers was created a month ago by Curt, Ellen Simonetti, Bill Crawford, Andrew Nachison and Rebecca MacKinnon. Curt explained why he formed it, "I saw a New York Times article on reformist cleric Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a prominent blogger, and his work for imprisoned bloggers. I realized bloggers are sort of without official status, so I thought we bloggers could work together." According to Curt, the committee consists of every blogger in the world, theoretically. But they are three staff and four advisors. "We have Texans, Oregonians, Canadian-Iranians, Syrian people. We even heard from people from Brazil to Japan to Malaysia to France," said Curt.

Read the Post

Jeff Jarvis has More Notes and Links

Salman Rushdie on Freedom of Speech

Singapore Political Prisoner

Should freedom of speech be once again allowed in Singapore? As it is now, freedom of speech is a concept unfamiliar to many residents of Singapore, who are constrained to newspapers, radio, television, and internet all tightly controlled by the government. After all, they know best. And they constantly warn that freedom of speech would destroy the republic and bring on racial wars.

What? Some Indian complains that the Chinese are nothing but money grubbing, souless merchants? Some Chinese complains that Indians are a lazy lot and sleep too long in the afternoons? Some Malay complains that they were there first, and all the Chinese and Indians should pack their bags and go back home? Revolution? Anarchy? Well, those are the feeble reasons why the Singapore government owns or in other ways controls ALL media in the country.

Fear of anarchy.

And the people of Singapore accept these conditions?

A short quote from Salman Rushdie, courtesy of the blog of Mr. Brown:

The idea that any kind of free society can be constructed in which people will never be offended or insulted is absurd. So too is the notion that people should have the right to call on the law to defend them against being offended or insulted. A fundamental decision needs to be made: do we want to live in a free society or not? Democracy is not a tea party where people sit around making polite conversation. In democracies people get extremely upset with each other. They argue vehemently against each other’s positions. (But they don’t shoot.)

At Cambridge University I was taught a laudable method of argument: you never personalise, but you have absolutely no respect for people’s opinions. You are never rude to the person, but you can be savagely rude about what the person thinks. That seems to me a crucial distinction: people must be protected from discrimination by virtue of their race, but you cannot ring-fence their ideas. The moment you say that any idea system is sacred, whether it’s a religious belief system or a secular ideology, the moment you declare a set of ideas to be immune from criticism, satire, derision, or contempt, freedom of thought becomes impossible.

Mr. Brown on Salman Rushdie

Blogger Ego Boost

Nicole Blog Rocks!

Feeling tired and lonely, and just need a boost to inspire your next post? Thanks to Jakartass and his intimate connection with J-Walk Blog (sorry you weren't hotlinked yesterday in the SF Chron), I was able to stroke my ego....and so can you.

This is the professional analysis of my website/blog:

"I just saw your website and I'm simply in awe. The URL has 25 characters. Just the perfect length. It must have taken many years to craft the page. Also, Flickr put up a link to your page, which totally rocks.

What an awesome page! If only my aunt would have an awesome page like that. The page contains 2 links, a very reasonable amount. Yes, I expected the creator to do this well. The HTML is highly accessible.

There are 506 characters in the code, which is a fantastic length for power users. Thumbs up. The color scheme is minimalist, pure feng shui. So fresh and new. What a wonderful, wonderful web page."

-- Julian Sutherland, How to Design for the Web

Click Here to Check Your Website/Blog

Thanks Jakartass!

Racist News from Taiwan

The White Menace

SinoSplice has just posted a note about new signs going up in Taipei, warning young Taiwanese ladies to beware of big-nosed foreigners lurking around ATMs, waiting to mug and steal withdrawals. Is this a major problem in Taipei? Are foreigners often robbing customers at ATMs?

Racism, pure and simple.

Taiwan Warns about Foreigners

Radio Free Nepal

Radio Free Nepal

Excellent news, photos, and links coming out daily from Radio Free Nepal. If you care about the struggle for democracy in Nepal, then you should be checking this blog daily. Outstanding.

Radio Free Nepal

Islamic Terrorism in Thailand

Tak Bai

While I don't support the heavy-handed policies used by Prime Minister Taksin Shinawatra to quell the Islamic revolt in southern Thailand, most Thais support his decision to use whatever force necessary to stop the senseless killing, which has plagued the south for over a year. And just when you start to feel a sense of regret over the slaughter at Tak Bai, a message from the Islamic terrorists surfaces and you lose any sympathy for the radical separatists. As translated by the always amazing Ron Morris at 2Bangkok.

2Bangkok
Translation of a leaflet left by 'bandits' in the deep South
February 22, 2005

[Our sources in the South provided this leaflet (right) being circulated in the South by a separatist group.]

Warn the mind/consciousness with peace

According to the unrest of daily killings in 4 provinces in the south, this has made people apprehensive. The people who are killed are the enemy of the National Regaining Movement of Pattani state such as the government officials in many levels--military, police, teachers, Kamnan [chief of district], head of villagers, chairman of tambon administrative organization, provincial administrative organizations, volunteers for protecting land, civil protecting voluntary officers, protecting village officers, etc. or village police who are rising up like mushrooms. Whoever cooperates and repays an obligation to the government declares to make war with the National Regaining Movement of Pattani state. Just acknowledge that those are always in our eyes. Don’t be arrogant and assertive because this means your lives and your assets will not safe. Stop making problem for yourselves.

Ideal of founding the Pattani state will never die in the four provinces in the South. We beg the ones who are not direct enemies with the movement such as Kamnan, chief of villagers, chairman of Tambon administrative organizations, tambon administrative organizations, provincial administrative organizations, volunteers for protecting land, civil protecting voluntary officers, protecting village officers, village police etc. These people should be careful and start thinking for a better life, because the true enemy of the movement is the government, government officials, military, and police whose people our movement declares war on.

Events of daily killing will be in crisis and continue. The government supports many budgets such as risky money, allowances, and adjusting the salary for the lower level units. This is just to make you to bear the burnt [stand in the gap] as armor to protect the upper units without considering the depressed heart and the safety of lives and assets of the lower level units.

We solicit those people mentioned above to stop cooperating with the government, because when the problem takes place in the area you responsible for and the problem will not unravel. Who will be the target? Who will be the victim of the government? When you are useless, you will be kicked out like a pig or a shabby dog. It is not too late to change your mind for a better life that is happy always. Love and concern.

Link to 2Bangkok

Cruising in Asia

Cruise Ship at Philippines Trench

I've lectured on a half-dozen cruise ships in Southeast Asia and really don't enjoy the cruise experience, but I know that older folks often appreciate the simplicity and care provided by ships, so I'll post a link below that leads to a handful of companies offering cruises around Asia within the following year.

Cruise Ships Around Asia

Hersh Investigative Reporter

Fallujah

Seymour Hersh is an investigative reporter who uncovered the massacre at My Lai in Vietnam and now writes for the New Yorker, and has produced an ongoing series about the war in Iraq, including ground breaking coverage of the abuses in Abu Ghraib. Remember the photos? Sy was the guy who revealed them to the world. Today, Sy received another accolade and will certainly win more in the future.

NEW YORK (AP) - Seymour Hersh of The New Yorker won his fifth George Polk Award for his accounts of prisoner abuse in Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, making him the most-honored individual in the history of the awards. Reporters from The New York Times took three of the 2004 awards, and The Associated Press was a double winner.

Hersh won the magazine reporting prize for his Abu Ghraib stories 35 years after winning the Polk award for coverage of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.

The Career Award went to Bill Moyers, who retired last year after more than three decades in public television. He won a Polk Award in 1980 for political reporting.

The 13 awards were to be announced Tuesday by Long Island University, which was to present the prizes April 21. They were created in 1949 in honor of the CBS reporter killed while covering the Greek civil war.

Hersh

Vagabonding Matt Around the World

Where's Matt?

Matt is an Ozzie from Brisbane who quit his job over two years ago and hit the road, not really sure of purpose or reason, and his website blurbs has been largely ignored until this week after it was plugged at Boing Boing and other aggregators and group-driven blogs. Matt is generally noted for his videos of his two-step dances to the joys of life, filmed all over Asia, but they are very large files, so unless you are on a T-1 line, forget about seeing Matt dancing.

I found his journal very well written, honest, and a great look into the perils and challenges of hitting the road for a few years, after quitting your job and giving up all the securities of a safe lifestyle. So, instead of the enormous videos, I'll post a link to his home and let you go find out something about Matt. Start from his first day, then visit his most recent entry, and see if you want more. You probably will be drawn into the adventures of Matt -- an Ozzie on the road.

2/1/05 Seattle, Washington
February 01, 2005

The other question I get asked is, of course, how did I afford all the travel. Am I a trust fund baby? IPO jackass? International jewel thief? The simple answer is that I invented the Ab Roller. But while simple, it is sadly untrue.

I saved up a fair amount while living in Australia due to a favorable exchange rate and some tax weirdness that turned out in my favor. It wasn't a fortune by any means, and I should stress that if you avoid Europe, the US, and a few other places, you're really not spending all that much once you get where you're going.

I couldn't even guess at how much I spent wandering around over the last two years, and I certainly wouldn't want to. But it's not something that bothers me. If you regret the money you spend on travel, then you're doing it wrong.

Some people want to know where I'm planning to go next. It won't be for a while, as I have no money coming in right now, but when I do get things sorted out I'd like to take an extended trip to South America -- one of the two continents I haven't yet visited and by far the more manageable journey. I'm terrified of spiders, so I'm staying out of the Amazon and anywhere else where large furry arachnids tend to hang out. Patagonia seems beautiful and fairly spider-free, so it may be the focus of the trip.

I'd really like to go to Bhutan. The places I pine for most are generally the ones I know least about, and pretty much all I know about Bhutan is how to spell it and where to find it on a map. It seems like a mysterious place, so it's near the top of my list.

As landforms go, you can't beat islands. Islands are a great thing. I've never met one I didn't like. My favorites are often the ones where you go "Who knew there was a freaking island there? How can that be?!" I have that reaction to the Azores and I'd like to find out what the hell the deal is with that place. I'd like to go to the Isle of Man, mostly because of the name. There are a lot of Monkey Islands around Asia and I'd like to visit all of them. Speaking of which, there's a place called Skull Island a few thousand miles southwest of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. It's surrounded by a rock atoll that hides it from passing ships and would have acted as a breakwater for the tsunami, so it should still be in good shape. I would like to go there and search for dinosaurs and oversized deified primates.

If anyone is interested in funding such an expedition, you know how to reach me.

Where the Hell is Matt?

My Neighbor in Woody Creek

Hunter S. Thompson

Many years ago I spent a winter in Aspen as a ski bum with a season pass at Aspen Highlands, and lived in a ranch house on Woody Creek Road, a few miles down from the canyon where Hunter had lived for over a decade. Although I never saw him on the slopes, I often wandered over to the Jerome Hotel after a day of skiing, and spotted Hunter either at the bar alone or at a table with a group of friends. I never had the nerve to introduce myself, but never forgot Rolling Stone issue #100 which featured his story Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. That issue is still buried away somewhere in my closet.

This was also the same winter that cokehead Claudine Longet shot her boyfriend/skier Spider Savitch and Dodge introduced their Aspen atrosity, which was promotly trashed while on display in the downtown Aspen mall. And Aspen, the novel, by Alex Haley. What a winter.

In memory, a column by Hunter on the death of Richard Nixon.

Rolling Stone
HUNTER S. THOMPSON
'He was a crook'
Jun 16, 1994

MEMO FROM THE NATIONAL AFFAIRS DESK
DATE: MAY 1, 1994
FROM: DR. HUNTER S. THOMPSON
SUBJECT: THE DEATH OF RICHARD NIXON:

NOTES ON THE PASSING OF AN AMERICAN MONSTER....HE WAS A LIAR ND A QUITTER, AND HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN BURIED AT SEA. ...BUT HE WAS, AFTER ALL, THE PRESIDENT.
SUBJECT: THE DEATH OF RICHARD NIXON:

"And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is becoming the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird."--REVELATION 18:2

Richard Nixon is gone now and I am poorer for it. He was the real thing--a political monster straight out of Grendel and a very dangerous enemy. He could shake your hand and stab you in the back at the same time. He lied to his friends and betrayed the trust of his family. Not even Gerald Ford, the unhappy ex-president who pardoned Nixon and kept him out of prison, was immune to the evil fallout. Ford, who believes strongly in Heaven and Hell, has told more than one of his celebrity golf partners that I know Iwill go to hell, because I pardoned Richard Nixon."

I have had my own bloody relationship with Nixon for many years, but I am not worried about it landing me in hell with him. I have already been there with that bastard, and I am a better person for it. Nixon had the unique ability to make his enemies seem honorable, and we developed a keen sense of fraternity. Some of my best friends have hated Nixon all their lives. My mother hates Nixon, my son hates Nixon, I hate Nixon, and this hatred has brought us together.

Nixon laughed when I told him this. "Don't worry," he said. "I, too, am a family man, and we feel the same way about you."

It was Richard Nixon who got me into politics, and now that he's gone, I feel lonely. He was a giant in his way. As long as Nixon was politically alive--and he was, all the way to the end--we could always be sure of finding the enemy on the Low Road. There was no need to look anywhere else for the evil bastard. He had the fighting instincts of a badger trapped by hounds. The badger will roll over on its back and emit a smell of death, which confuses the dogs and lures them in for the traditional ripping and tearing action. But it is usually the badger who does the ripping and tearing. It is a beast that fights best on its back: rolling under the throat of the enemy and seizing it by thehead with all four claws.

That was Nixon's style--and if you forgot, he would kill you as a lesson to the others. Badgers don't fight fair, bubba. That's why God made dachshunds.

............

If the right people had been in charge of Nixon's funeral, his casket would have been launched into one of those open-sewage canals that empty into the ocean just south of Los Angeles. He was a swine of a man and a jabbering dupe of a president. Nixon was so crooked that he needed servants to help him screw his pants on every morning. Even his funeral was illegal. He was queer in the deepest way. His body should have been burned in a trash bin.

These are harsh words for a man only recently canonized by President Clinton and my old friend George McGovern--but I have written worse things about Nixon, many times, and the record will show that I kicked him repeatedly long before he went down. I beat him like a mad dog with mange every time I got a chance, and I am proud of it. He was scum.

Let there be no mistake in the history books about that. Richard Nixon was an evil man--evil in a way that only those who believe in the physical reality of the Devil can understand it. He was utterly without ethics or morals or any bedrock sense of decency. Nobody trusted him--except maybe the Stalinist Chinese, and honest historians will remember him mainly as a rat who kept scrambling to get back on the ship.

.............

Some people will say that words like scum and rotten are wrong for Objective Journalism--which is true, but they miss the point. It was the built-in blind spots of the Objective rules and dogma that allowed Nixon to slither into the White House in the first place. He looked so good on paper that you could almost vote for him sight unseen. He seemed so all-American, so much like Horatio Alger, that he was able to slip through the cracks of Objective Journalism. You had to get Subjective to see Nixon clearly, and the shock of recognition was often painful.

Story with Links

500 Memorial Comments on MetaFilter

Paris Hilton's Sidekick Hacked

Paris

In my neverending quest to provide the latest news on Southeast Asia, here's some late-breaking events about the Queen of Asia: Paris Hilton.

Paris Hilton's ever-present T-Mobile Sidekick II has been hacked, with pictures and contact information from the mobile device showing up in various places on the web (only to be quickly expunged). Since the Sidekick II stores copies of all its data on T-Mobile's servers, this means that it's more than likely that everyone who uses the Sidekick (which is only available from T-Mobile), is at risk of having their private pictures exposed to the world. There is a rumor going around that her password was conned out of her, though, which would be lovely to hear (since it would mean the servers are theoretically intact).

Because remember, we care about privacy, unless it's the privacy of someone famous. Also, there are exposed human breasts after the jump, if that sort of thing scares or frightens you.

Engadget Covers Paris

Gizmodo Also Covers Paris

Original Philippines Flag Discovered in San Francisco

Philippines Flag

Faded banner in San Francisco could be first Filipino flag
TERENCE CHEA
Associated Press Writer
February 20, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Tacked inside a wooden display case in a rarely visited corner of the San Francisco War Memorial could be the answer to one of the great mysteries of Philippine history: What happened to the first Filipino flag?

The Philippines' founding president, Emilio Aguinaldo, famously unfurled the original "Stars and Sun" flag when he declared his nation's independence from Spain in 1898, but the banner disappeared during the Philippine-American War that followed.

"It is a mystery in the Philippines that historians have been trying to answer for a long time," said Rudy Asercion, a member of the American Legion's War Memorial Commission.

Hanging by two thumbtacks in the building's trophy room is a faded red, white and blue banner that just might be that missing icon - a banner Filipinos compare to the "Stars and Stripes" flag Betsy Ross made for Gen. George Washington during the U.S. war of independence.

Asercion said he noticed the artifact while rummaging through the usually locked trophy room last year. He now believes U.S. Gen. Frederick Funston captured the flag during the Philippine-American War and brought it back to San Francisco when he was assigned to the Presidio in 1902.

"My research simply points out that this is the flag," said Asercion, 63, a third-generation Filipino American who was raised in San Francisco. "It's too much of a coincidence."

The National Historical Institute in Manila dispatched a representative to inspect the flag, and later sent a letter to the commission saying the banner was "most likely authentic." Two prominent Filipino politicians - Sens. Franklin Dilon and Dick Gordon - have visited the War Memorial to see it for themselves, as has Ed Malaya, consul at the nation's San Francisco consulate.

"I am excited about the prospect that this flag may be the original Philippine flag," said Malaya, who has written a book about Filipino presidential history. "This is a valuable link to our past. People thought that we had lost this history. It is definitely exciting that the flag may still be intact."

If it proves to be authentic, the Philippine government would very much like to see the flag returned, and there appear to be few objectors in San Francisco, where the Board of Supervisors passed a resolution this month urging the American Legion to investigate its history.

That resolution should provide Asercion and other commissioners easier access to archival records they hope will provide enough historical evidence for Philippine historical authorities to certify the flag's authenticity.

Aguinaldo, who led the Filipino insurgency against Spain, designed the flag when he was living in exile in Hong Kong in the late 1890's. Aguinaldo asked fellow exile Marcella Agoncilla to assemble the flag, which was made from fine satin - an unusual material for flags at the time.

Inspired by other flags flown during the Philippine uprising, the Aguinaldo flag featured a hand-painted sun to symbolize the dawn of Philippine sovereignty, three stars to represent the country's three regions and eight rays to honor the provinces that first rose up against three centuries of Spanish rule.

"The flag is a work of art," Asercion said.

Spain had declared a truce with Filipino insurgents and was fighting the United States when Aguinaldo returned to the Philippines in 1898. In a scene re-enacted throughout the Philippines each June 12, the country's independence day, Aguinaldo appeared on his balcony and unveiled the flag while the Filipino national anthem was played for the first time.

"In a sense, this flag saw the birth of the Philippine nation," Malaya said. "This is the single moment in our history that the Philippine people felt that they were independent and free. The whole country was united, and there was a growing consciousness that we were one people."

But the country's independence was short lived. Later that year, the United States won the Spanish-American War and Spain ceded the Philippines to the Americans. The following year, Aguinaldo became the Philippines' first president and declared war on the United States, organizing a guerilla campaign against the new colonizers.

No one knows for sure what happened to the flag during Aguinaldo's brief rule, but Asercion believes that U.S. troops led by Gen. Funston confiscated it when they captured Aguinaldo in 1901 and put an end to the insurgency. The Philippines would not regain sovereignty until after World War II, following more than 40 years of American colonization and Japanese occupation.

Asercion stumbled upon the 2-by-4-foot flag in the War Memorial Building last summer when he was gathering artifacts for an exhibit celebrating the 60th anniversary of the 1944 arrival of U.S. forces in the Philippines.

He found the stained satin banner tacked into the side of a dusty cabinet filled with antique swords donated to the American Legion decades ago. A catalogue contained only this sparse description: hand-made, torn, No. 35.

Asercion didn't think much about the worn-out flag until his friend Yolanda Ortega Stern noticed that it was made from satin - shiny on one side and dull on the other.

"When Yolanda told me that the flag was made of satin, it triggered my memory," Asercion said. "I said, 'This could be the flag that Aguinaldo made."

Asercion is now convinced that the San Francisco flag is the original, but he hopes that archival records will help him prove it beyond a doubt. He believes it was donated, along with other war memorabilia, to the American Legion more than 70 years ago, after Funston and his wife died.

A committee co-chaired by Ortega Stern has been formed to restore the flag, which has not been moved because of its brittle condition.

Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval said he hopes the flag will help open up a dialogue about what the United States did in the Philippines a century ago, and the "special relationship" that exists between the two countries.

"It doesn't take a Ph.D. to realize that this flag is of astounding historical significance," said Sandoval, whose district includes a large Filipino American population. "It's just crying out to be recognized, properly displayed and used as a tool for educating people about a conflict that happened 100 years ago that most people don't know much about."

Sacramento Bee Story about Philippines Flag Discovery

Stickman on Teeruks

Stickman in Bangkok

Stickman in Bangkok puts out a new column every Sunday with his insider tips on life in the Land of Smiles, and contributions from his readers about nearly everything imaginable. Then there's a few updates on nightlife in the capital, followed by a Q&A section geared towards farangs puzzled about Thai ways. Today's column is quite entertaining. Here's a couple of snippets, followed by the link.

I"ll come straight out and say it. I truly believe that the average Thai woman is much less trustworthy than the average farang woman. I really do. This is based on many things ranging from personal observations, to personal experience to reading all of the stories that readers submit to his website, both those for publication and those not.

With this in mind, I have always recommended that for anyone involved in a relationship with a Thai woman, that they pay a bit more attention than perhaps they would if she was farang. That doesn't mean that one should go spying on her, but do pay attention, notice the little things.

But just what do you do if you notice that there are a few things that don't seem right. What happens if you think she really is up to no good? What options exist?

And later, a reader writes in with his experiences as a social volunteer at Thai Immigration in Bangkok, and a warning for all visitors.

I do a lot of work at the Immigration Detention Center, on Soi Suan Phlu off Sathorn Road. I think any person interested in pursuing the nightlife of Bangkok, Pattaya, etc. should go check out some of the wayward souls down at the IDC, maybe during visitors hours when they go to the Immigration Bureau to renew their passport. In addition to the many people from Laos, Cambodia and Burma, there are many from Germany, US, UK, Australia as well as places further afield in IDC.

These are people who have lost their money, their minds and their health, and often their lives to AIDS. Their families back home do not know how to contact them, the embassies often do not return their calls. No one comes to visit them, save for me and a few social workers, in our attempts to help them be released. They have no one. Keep in mind that unlike in the US and most of Europe, once you are in the IDC, be it for an overstay or commission of a crime of which you have served the sentence in another prison, there is no deportation. You stay there until you can pay for your own ticket home.

I've worked in detention centres around the world and doing a stint in the Bangkok IDC is some of the hardest time I can imagine. I know that Bangkok can be a lot of fun and there are many stories to tell the mates back home, or here, for that matter. But behind most every funny story is a risk you are taking. I do not want to sound like anyone's mother, but please be careful.

Read Stickman in Bangkok

Vagabonding at its Finest

Balinese Children by Carl Parkes

Ever wanted to quit your job and hit the road for a few years, but also do something worthwhile to satisfy your soul and help improve the world's situation? Looks like this young lady from Silicon Valley has found the perfect combination of travel and good deeds.

After I completed and received my degree from Santa Clara University in the Silicon Valley, I moved to San Diego, found a job in an office tower and put nothing less than every drop of my passion into it. I worked 80-hour weeks, slept under my desk on weekends, and quickly became one of the highest paid employees in the company. But after two years of this life, I sat up from my computer one day and realized this; I had a successful job with prestige, an apartment by the beach, a nice car, a pretty boyfriend, and an income greater than that of my parents combined…and it wasn’t enough. Or rather it was enough. It was too much. I was grasping at the wrong dream, desperately clenching onto the airy and materialistic notions of a magazine dream, instead of picking myself up and pursuing my own.

And that’s how I learned that sometimes we spend a lot of lives learning not what we want to do, but what we do not want to do. And that’s okay. It’s not important how many mistakes we make, only that we learn from those we do.

So where was I to go? I had no idea. But on an intuitive whim, I caught a clue as to where I could go to find MY dream. So I sold everything I owned, strapped on a backpack and left the country...

I spent the next four years travelling over six continents and through forty-something countries: working with the children living in the squatter community in the dumpster of Guatemala, building houses for Habitat for Humanity in Fijian villages, strolling the beaches of Costa Rica at midnight keeping the eggs of Leatherback turtles safe from poachers, fighting off Lantana from overtaking the native plant species of Eastern Australia, giving daily massages to the crippled limbs of those left at the Mother Teresa House of the Destitute, preparing the gardens for feeding an orphanage in India, teaching English to refugee monks who escaped from Tibet, and, most recently, planting trees in a reforestation effort in Coastal Ecuador.

Over the course of those years, attending the prestigious "University of Life," I found my path and my passion in "service learning" and in what Dragons calls in its mission statement, "experiential education," which simply means -- using the world as our living classroom and our real experiences and interactions within it as the lesson plan.

So having found my own life-driving inspiration abroad, I quickly realized that the only thing that matched my excitement in making my own reality-quaking revelations was watching, guiding, and sharing that process of "travel-induced-enlightenments" with others -- specifically, with young, enthusiastic and inspired people like you!

Read Her Blog

Miss McDonald in the Philippines

Posing in Makati



Hanging the Laundry



Sunset in Boracay



Happy with Ronald



Raiding the Fridge

This is just too much. Some wacky Filipina in Manila dresses up as "Miss McDonald" and has photos taken of herself in town and elsewhere in the country. Her site suffers from bandwidth overload, and all the remaining photo links are broken, but in the meantime, let's all give it up for the latest fetish icon from the Philippines.

Miss McDonald!

Report from Meulaboh

Flickr Photos by Terz

Terz is a Singaporean photographer who has left his home for Meulaboh, to help with the tsunami survivors and post his impressions at his blog, which can be located via his Profile at Flickr. He's submitted about a dozen posts of his impressions, and used Flickr as the hosting service for his insightful black-and-white images of the disaster zone. Do visit both his Flickr account are read his reflections at his blog.

I'm back on the Endeavour and waiting for the camera batteries to be recharged (and to complete downloading the images to the laptop). While the others have their dinner, I'm sitting in the corner nearest the power points for all the electronic equipment I have that needs recharging and thinking about the day that has just gone by. It's the end of Day 2 and I've shot almost 950 images.

I haven't been eating dinners at all since we've been in Meulaboh. The strange thing is, I don't feel the need. I'm focused on downloading all the images, formatting both CF cards and recharging my batteries for the next day's shooting. I can't sleep either. My sleep has been restless since we arrived. I sleep no more than two hours per night, but every morning, I feel energetic enough to face another day on shore. It's a strange thing.

Terz Flickr Photos from Meuloboh

Terz Blog from Meuloboh