1 comments about Thai for Gay Tourists.

1. Even if you have had no prior knowledge of Thai, this book clearly presents the sound system and shows the Thai script. It provides ALL vocabulary relevant to gay life, and gives quite a bit of background from gay Thais about life in their country. My only caveat would be that it generally presents homosexuality as accepted and even celebrated there. This is a common presentation of gay life in many countries. However, one should always be aware that we are not the majority and there is bigotry everywhere. But with that in mind, I must say this is truly an impressive little book--it does a lot in a short space, the author is to be commended!

5 comments about Burmese Looking Glass: A Human Rights Adventure and a Jungle Revolution.

1. Edith Mirante's travel goals are pretty much similar to mine - see and report honestly, ignore travel hype, live as the locals, learn about political constraints, try to be sensitive to my gigantic country's effect on people in places where there are few American eyes. Are the people I meet in danger? Are they happy? Are they above the level of survival? Are they threatened by officials? For the reader who routinely asks such questions, Edith Mirante is the ideal travel guide. She rewrites the definition of "intrepid." She goes where no Americans are allowed, walking for days on blisters to visit Karen tribespeople, traveling clandestinely in hill country for the chance to meet a famous druglord and understand how the "Myanmar" army thugs have forced hill tribes to grow opium in place of crops. She braves Thai jail in order to push the envelope, sensing the most profound truths may lie just beyond those travel restrictions. They often do. Everywhere she manages to go, she tells us whom she sees, and what she hears. Everything Edith does stems from relationships. Edith brings gifts to her hosts. She is polite. She is properly outraged when she discovers mistreatment of the people she visits. And most of all, she goes the extra distance to return and hold her own American government responsible for mishandling the regional situation to the point of destruction. Most of us will never be able to travel to the places Edith takes us. If we did, there would be still fewer of us who could understand what we found when we got there. Since I read this book a year ago I have been surprised by how often I hear news items about Burma. What I hear often echoes the book. There are the accounts of farmers enslaved by the Burmese government to dig a pipeline for an American oil company - the farmers are now suing the oil company for enslavement in American court. Two young Karen brothers have had their pictures on the cover of a large-circulation American magazine for their desperate attempts to win back their lands and safety from the "Myanmar" army, which demands the complete destruction of all hill tribes. A much-beloved Burmese leader remains under house arrest. And, of course, American citizens are regularly requested to boycott American firms doing business with the brutal Burmese government. Burma may be half a world from the West. But it is no longer sufficient for westerners to rely on ignorance. It may be argued that increased worldwide communication allows us to be compassionate in new ways. We cannot all go to Burma to find out what is happening there. That is why a book like this is so valuable. Edith Mirante has already been there. She has done some of the preliminary footwork for the rest of us.



2. Edith Mirante's travel goals are pretty much similar to mine - see and report honestly, ignore travel hype, live as the locals, learn about political constraints, try to be sensitive to my gigantic country's effect on people in places where there are few American eyes. Are the people I meet in danger? Are they happy? Are they above the level of survival? Are they threatened by officials? For the reader who routinely asks such questions, Edith Mirante is the ideal travel guide. She rewrites the definition of "intrepid." She goes where no Americans are allowed, walking for days on blisters to visit Karen tribespeople, traveling clandestinely in hill country for the chance to meet a famous druglord and understand how the "Myanmar" army thugs have forced hill tribes to grow opium in place of crops. She braves Thai jail in order to push the envelope, sensing the most profound truths may lie just beyond those travel restrictions. They often do. Everywhere she manages to go, she tells us whom she sees, and what she hears. Everything Edith does stems from relationships. Edith brings gifts to her hosts. She is polite. She is properly outraged when she discovers mistreatment of the people she visits. And most of all, she goes the extra distance to return and hold her own American government responsible for mishandling the regional situation to the point of destruction. Most of us will never be able to travel to the places Edith takes us. If we did, there would be still fewer of us who could understand what we found when we got there. Since I read this book a year ago I have been surprised by how often I hear news items about Burma. What I hear often echoes the book. There are the accounts of farmers enslaved by the Burmese government to dig a pipeline for an American oil company - the farmers are now suing the oil company for enslavement in American court. Two young Karen brothers have had their pictures on the cover of a large-circulation American magazine for their desperate attempts to win back their lands and safety from the "Myanmar" army, which demands the complete destruction of all hill tribes. A much-beloved Burmese leader remains under house arrest. And, of course, American citizens are regularly requested to boycott American firms doing business with the brutal Burmese government. Burma may be half a world from the West. But it is no longer sufficient for westerners to rely on ignorance. It may be argued that increased worldwide communication allows us to be compassionate in new ways. We cannot all go to Burma to find out what is happening there. That is why a book like this is so valuable. Edith Mirante has already been there. She has done some of the preliminary footwork for the rest of us.



3. While I enjoyed reading this book, I was continually confused by it. I am one of a few Americans who lived in Burma for several years during the same time period. I found many of the author's descriptions compelling, yet rather sensationalistic. Was she telling a fictional story or a factual one about the tribes and political causes of Burma? Unfortunately, I came away disappointed by this confusion. However, for a reader who has has spent little or no time in Burma, the book would definitely be an exciting read.



4. I read Burmese Looking Glass about one year ago, after I had visited the Thai-Burmese border refugeee camps. I wish I had read it beforehand! This is an immensely informative narrative covering many aspects of the complicated and tragic situation in Burma, from underground pro-Democracy activists to drug lords to jungle warfare and women warriors. Its somewhere between political intrugue, war journalism, and travelogue. Much of what she reports is consistent with what I have learned from Burmese students in exile and pro-democray activists in the US and Thailand. I admire her chutzpah and honesty in painting this portrait of a horrendous and confusing situation as well as of herself. I found it totally readable, exciting, and inspiring.



5. It took we a while to warm up to Ms. Mirante. As the story unfolds, one has cause to suspect a liberal, bleeding-heart hand wringer. But, this isn't any emotive flutterer afraid to mar her pedicure. This is a jungle-tramping, malaria-be-damned, human rights activist commando.

   In the late '80's, Mirante traveled to Thailand to enhance her art career. She soon became aware of the human rights abuses perpertrated in Burma at the hands of the Tatmadaw, the Burmese government army under the control of socialist despot, Ne Win. Putting her art aside, she quickly adopts the cause of the Burmese hill tribes subject to brutal repression and in fear of cultural obliteration. Mirante courageously risks life and limb as she illegally moves among the Burmese tribes recording their stories for disbursal to the outside world. Undaunted, intrepid, unfailingly committed, Mirante catalogs the abuses of Ne Win, offers hope and assistance to the refugees, and battles valiantly to make their story known.

   Though she casts some political aspersions stateside that she fails to adequately defend, Mirante manages to write this story without recourse to the shrill and idle finger pointing one might typically uncover in such a book. In fact, any doubts of this woman's admirable pragmatism are shattered when she admits to loathing the song, "We are the World". One is left thinking that she finds the song a piece of overwrought theater blissfully (and, perhaps, all too conveniently) ignorant of life in the human rights trenches.

   Edith T. Mirante is a remarkable woman deserving the esteem of every lover of liberty. She writes a good book and fights a good fight and, for that, I say more power to her.

No comments about A Woman's Asia: True Stories (Travelers' Tales).

No comments about Trekking in the Himalayas (White Star Guides).

No comments about Old Bangkok (Images of Asia).

1 comments about The Rise of Oriental Travel: English Visitors to the Ottoman Empire, 1580-1720.

1. Upon reading Gerald MacLean's account of the Anglo encounter with "Near Eastern" cultures i was thoroughly impressed with the depth and reach of the author's archival research and his lucid/friendly writing style. As a college instructor, i have been able to use this text alongside works such as Said's Orientalism in order to illustrate the fact that the xenophobia and repressive campaigns of British empire were not inevitable--that the ideology and practice of British white supremacy did not reflect the belief systems and epistemic modes of all the empire's white subjects. Please do yourself a favor and read this first rate work!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT IT IS NOT IN PAPERBACK YET!!!!!!

No comments about Kuala Lumpur Travel Map Fourth Edition (Malaysia Regional Maps).

3 comments about Consumption of Kuala Lumpur (Reaktion Books - Topographics).

1. In the guise of a book examing the growth of Kuala Lumpur(KL), the author explores Malay legends and stories for what they show about national culture, as well as discussing recent Malaysian history up to Anwar Ibrahim's show trial and imprisonment. For an outsider with some knowledge of Malaysia, the book is excellent, and challenges many assumptions about Malaysia, and its current leadership. I suspect, but do not know, that its treatment may be superficial for a more knowledgeable reader,



2. I really enjoyed this book. Sardar gives a history of Kuala Lumpur told against a background of Malay proverbs and fables, and a good narrative of the political happenings in Malay politics of recent years. His descriptions of KL are right on, and the thorough understanding that the author has of Malay culture really enhance this book. Very readable and well-written.



3. This book is an absolute pleasure to read, a tasting menu of modern life in the Klang Valley, Malaysian history and Malaysian culture. An outsider who has lived here on and off for years, Ziauddin celebrates all that is uniquely Malaysian without pulling his punches when he chooses to throw them.
   
   After you have spent even one day in KL, if you are the literary type, I urge you to buy it. This is is one of the best books I have ever read, period -- although I don't think it would mean much to someone who has never been in Malaysia.

1 comments about Insight Guides Beijing (3rd ed.).

1. Stunning photos accompany well-written text about every aspect of the great city of Beijing. This is the best guide I have seen; in fact, this whole series is really, really good.

No comments about Japan's New Imperialism.