Results for “cuba” 191 found
Sir John Strachey’s *India: its Administration & Progress*
This is a fascinating and indeed highly readable book. The third edition dates from 1903 but it is based on some 1884 lectures. Here is one excerpt:
If the richer classes in China were deprived of Indian opium they would suffer as the richer classes in Europe would suffer if they were deprived of the choice vintages of Bordeaux and Burgundy, or as tobacco-smokers would suffer if not more cigars were to come from Cuba. In such a case, in our own country, the frequenters of public-houses would be conscious of no hardship, and the vast majority of the opium-smokers of China would be equally unconscious if they received no more opium from India [TC: China itself produced a lot of opium]. If, in deference to ignorant prejudice, India should be deprived of the revenue which she now obtains from opium, an act of folly and injustice would be perpetrated as gross as any that has ever been inflicted by a foreign Government on a subject country. India now possesses the rare fortune of obtaining from one of her most useful products a large revenue without the imposition of taxes on her own people…
Recommended, especially if you like to discover what people were really thinking at the time.
*Restless Empire*
The author is Odd Arne Westad and the subtitle is China and the World Since 1750. Excerpt:
…the Chinese on Cuba joined others in rebellion. Two thousand fought in the Cuban forces in the first war of independence in the 1870s. Some of the Chinese soldiers must have had battle experience, probably from the Taiping Rebellion, and they played a substantial role in the struggle for Cuban freedom up to 1902. A monument to the fallen Chinese in Havana has the following inscription: “There was not one Cuban Chinese deserter, not one Cuban Chinese traitor.”
I found this to be an excellent book and a very good starting place for unraveling the current foreign policy crises in Asia. It does a very good job explaining the sore spots from the past.
As you may know, one of my views is that most people underrate the chance of a (non-trivial) war in Asia in the next twenty years. I regard this chance as at least p = .05, and I do not think it is priced into securities markets at nearly that high a level. Historically, wars are not always easily predicted in advance. They tend to be correlated with the rise of major powers and with regional disruptions. In many countries nationalism and regional rivalries run rampant. It is not obvious to me that the United States is in a position to hold the whole region together.
In any case, this book will make my “one of the best of the year” list.
Assorted links
1. How quickly can China build very tall buildings? And new and informative paper on Cuba’s economic reforms (pdf).
3. Defense of GMOs from Mother Jones.
4. More dialogues with McCloskey.
5. IMF reviews An Economist Gets Lunch (scroll down a bit).
Markets in everything
Conflict Kitchen is a take-out restaurant that only serves cuisine from countries with which the United States is in conflict. The food is served out of a take-out-style storefront that rotates identities every six months to highlight another country. Each iteration of the project is augmented by events, performances, and discussions that seek to expand the engagement the public has with the culture, politics, and issues at stake within the focus country. These events have included live international Skype dinner parties between citizens of Pittsburgh and young professionals in Tehran, Iran; documentary filmmakers in Kabul, Afghanistan; and community radio activists in Caracas, Venezuela.
That is in Pittsburgh, and Cuba and North Korea are on the way. Here is more, and for the pointer I thank Michael Rosenwald.
The book truck
Sometimes the number of books arriving at the house each day exceeds my ability to carry them away (not a complaint), in part because I am not always in town to bring them to the office. Kathleen Fasanella suggests the book truck:
I have a Bretford, 36″ long shelves (6 sloped shelves), 18″ deep, 43″ or so high, 5″ Casters. 2 swivel, 2 lock. It is a welded frame so there is nothing to put together (except to snap in the casters)This model is available at highsmith…http://www.highsmith.com/Bretfordreg-Duro-Book-Truck-6-Sloped-Shelves-43Hnbspxnbsp36Wnbspxnbsp18D-c_21704649/H10251/
The model no is L3W-H10251, bottom of the page at the above link.
This is the least expensive price I found but I don’t know if this company is any good:
http://www.worthingtondirect.com/school_furniture/av_equipment/V336PB_37X18X42H__PUTTY_BEIGE__SIX_SLANT_SHELVES__MOBILE_UTILITY_TRUCK.htm?utm_source=shopzillacom&utm_medium=productfeed&utm_campaign=product
Here is her blog post on how to organize books.
I am going to buy the book truck.
Assorted links
Assorted links
Sentence of the Day
“The state has no business getting involved in a matter between two individuals.”
Raúl Castro explaining why Cuba will now allow people to sell their own cars. Only musicians and a few other specials, however, are allowed to buy a new car.
Sentences to ponder markets in everything
Only children’s books or specialist scuba diving titles currently boast to be fully water-resistant.
A waterproof paperback book will be hitting the market next year, hat tip goes to Bookslut, who knows of one other waterproof title.
And here is another Markets in Everything, hat tip to TW.
By the way, the (possible) salt water flows on Mars were in part discovered by a 21-year-old Nepalese undergraduate, and it seems he had the key contribution.
The North Korean global happiness index
Here at MR we are always keen to report dissenting viewpoints:
China is the happiest place on earth(!!) according to a new global happiness index released by North Korea’s Chosun Central Television. China earned 100 out of 100 points, followed closely by North Korea (98 points), then Cuba, Iran, and Venezuela. Coming in at 203rd place is America (or rather “the American Empire”, 美帝国), with only 3 happiness points. South Korea got a measly 18 points for 152nd place.
I cannot find the full rankings (which countries came between South Korea and the United States?) but here is a partial screen shot of the results, in Chinese. For the pointer I thank Eapen Thampy.
Inconvenient possibility?
Usually in such matters it takes a long time for the full and true story to come out, if indeed it ever does, but an MR commentator drew my attention to the following, concerning the courier who led them to the bin Laden hideout:
Detainees at the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, had given the courier’s pseudonym to American interrogators and said that the man was a protégé of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed the confessed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The story (1/20) is here, and from Haaretz here is the same point made more explicitly. I have never been pro-Guantánamo, or for that matter pro-torture (and do note the caveats above), but I am willing to report results which may run counter to my views. The moral and the practical do not always coincide, and perhaps we should be celebrating just a bit less. It is possible this is not a totally “clean” victory on our part.
Assorted links
Fill in the blank
Does this story sound familiar? Perhaps it is more familiar than you think. Which country is this article excerpt about?
Rising debt charges are forcing [???]…to reshape its…economy…[a] congress, scheduled for April, will discuss and likely ratify policies that are already starting to be implemented. These include cutting 20 per cent of state workers, cutting social benefits, eliminating state subsidies, improving [the] trade balance and liberalising rules for small business and foreign investment.
No peeking. The answer is here, the article is here, and the leading creditor is…here.
Markets in everything very good subtitles on the article
I liked this one:
Market forces govern a baby’s value among vervet monkeys and sooty mangabeys
The full article is here. I was not surprised to learn that a sooty mangabey is, indeed, sooty in color.
For the pointer I thank Kathleen Fasanella and Chris Valickas.